Fairfax County General :
Fairfax Underground
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.

Maybe Wrote:
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> I have read accounts of people in England
> encountering ghosts from Roman times and earlier,
> but such accounts are very rare, I suspect because
> they are more like recordings that simply wear out
> over time.

I wondered if perhaps their "souls" were "Recycled". In other words, those spirits were reborn as new people. Maybe we are our own ancestors after all?

Hi I live on West 3rd Ave. I live in my grandma's house. She built this house in 1965 and in 1966 she had my father. My grandma died 22 years later. When my dad was 30 and my mom was 29 they got married and moved into my grandma's house. One night my mom and dad were lying in the bed, and my mom saw a dark figure staring at her. Then they heard someone dragging stuff up and down the hallway and across the wall. My mom told my dad to go check, and he found that the furniture was moved around. My dad said it was his mom.

In 1997 my mom had my brother Brandon. One night Brandon started crying, and when my mom went to get him he was floating in the air like someone was holding him. In 2003 she had me, and more activity started happening. Something took me and held me in the air, so my mom called her mom to do an exorcism, and it went away for a little while but started again. We got someone to do a sweep of our house, and we found out it was my grandma.

A bit of history on Georgia Avenue. On July 11 1864 Confederate cannons fired into Washington DC from their position at Jackson Lane and the Washington-rockville pike
(now Bradley Boulevard and Wisconsin Avenue) as 20 000 Confederate troops advanced on Union defenses along Rock Creek and down seventh
Street (Georgia Avenue).

In the midst of the cannon fire gun shots and rebel yells a young man fell in love. His ghost can still be seen today seeking one
more glimpse of the woman he never spoke to but came to love so dearly that it cost him his life. Col. Isaac Grimsley served as an aide
to Confederate general jubal early who commanded the Confederate attack. Col. Grimsley bravely rode his horse from the Confederate
command post in Silver Spring up and down the Confederate line with battle orders for the troops.

Each time he rode the line he passed the Bradley farm house where in a large window he observed the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
With grace and style Maria belt was the sophisticated elegant woman of his dreams. She did not make a welcoming gesture or acknowledge the
handsome Confederate colonel. Each time he passed the colonel slowed his horse to slow trot so that he could admire her. As the day grew long
a haze of gun smoke spread across the battlefield and col.

Grimsley stopped his galloping horse one final time to gaze into her eyes. She did not look away. At that moment a Union cannon fired from
fort Reno with the shell that cost the colonel his life. It was an easy shot since the colonel in his moment of amours intoxication foolishly
placed himself in the open easily seen by Union troops.

Today the Bradley farm house is the site of the Chevy chase country club. On warm summer nights guests leaving the club report hearing a galloping
horse approach then suddenly stop. For a moment they can see a soldier in uniform gazing longingly toward the house.

In an instant he is gone. Inscribed in the club house chimney is "1747" the year the farm house was built. Thirty years later during the
revolutionary war Maria belt lived in that house and waited patiently for her lover to return. She never accepted his death in battle and spent
years waiting for him at that window. She died heartbroken long before the Civil War. Confederate col. Isaac Grimsley had fallen in love with the
image of her lovelorn ghost.

jada Wrote:
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> Hi I live on West 3rd Ave. I live in my grandma's
> house. She built this house in 1965 and in 1966
> she had my father. My grandma died 22 years later.
> When my dad was 30 and my mom was 29 they got
> married and moved into my grandma's house. One
> night my mom and dad were lying in the bed, and my
> mom saw a dark figure staring at her. Then they
> heard someone dragging stuff up and down the
> hallway and across the wall. My mom told my dad to
> go check, and he found that the furniture was
> moved around. My dad said it was his mom.
>
> In 1997 my mom had my brother Brandon. One night
> Brandon started crying, and when my mom went to
> get him he was floating in the air like someone
> was holding him. In 2003 she had me, and more
> activity started happening. Something took me and
> held me in the air, so my mom called her mom to do
> an exorcism, and it went away for a little while
> but started again. We got someone to do a sweep of
> our house, and we found out it was my grandma.

Speaking of England/Scotland, I had two awesome experiences in England and one at the Supreme Court in DC.

1-----Glamis Castle, Forfar, SCOT: The lord of the castle is said to haunt the attic area, where he played cards with a friend of his on Saturday night. As the clock ticked midnight, a strange man came in. It was supposedly the devil and both men burned unexpectantly. The owners bricked up an area which is believed to be the exact spot where they played.

I had forgotten why exactly I wanted to go to Glamis, but as we did the tour I felt like someone was watching me. Then the guide mentioned the story. I wasn't all that freaked until I went to ...

2------Berekeley Castle, Gloucester, ENG: A --- In the small greeting area there was a large pit. I was standing with another couple when she said, 'I wonder what this was used for?' I answered w/out thinking, 'probably threw people down in there.

As it turns out, King Edward II was thrown in, where animal carcasses were thrown in -- the thinking being he was suffocate on the decomposing flesh; when that didn't work they tried starving him to death -- 30 days later he's still alive. So, while sleeping in his bed in his prison cell, a red-hot stake was shoved up him bum (NO! No joke!!)

My question to myself was: How did I know they threw bodies down there when I didn't know of this story?!

B -- In the chapel, I was in the front looking at the pulpit which had two chairs to the left in a semi-dark little corner. For some reason I was transfixed on one chair, which I couldn't approach, staring at it and feeling like someone was staring right back at me!! It was creepy as all get out!

The guide then explains some people don't even GO in the chapel because of the 'spirits.'

3-----Library in the Supreme Court: My father worked there and his coworker took us on a tour, one of which was the library (NOT on the public tour). It is a long, narrow, dark room with a 2nd floor looking down on tables.

Looking at the far end of the room again I had the feeling someone was staring at me, but this time I got chilled and goosebumps. Didn't like it not one bit.

As it turns out, that land the Court was built on was an old gallows where men were hung in the early 1900s.

So........while I've never seen a ghost or mists or anything like that, I consider myself more empathic toward ghosts. I feel them rather than see them, which in a way is much better for me!!

Among my passions is learning about the Confederate army's desperate attack on Washington DC
toward the end of the Civil War. On a warm summer evening I ventured into the forest in northern
Rock Creek Park searching for the barricades constructed by the Confederates during their attack
known as breast works.

My research materials were vague so I spent long hours criss-crossing the forest searching for
the isolated site. It was nearly dark when I found the Confederate army's battle position deep
within the woods.

It was an eerie place with a disturbing calm on this ground men rushed at each other bayonets
glistening with lethal intent as their comrades succumbed to the bullet and cannon fire filling
the air.

The light grew dim as I approached. To my amazement right before my eyes only feet away ghosts
sprang to life from the Confederate earth works they charged toward me screaming their battle cry
thirsty for the blood of unseen Union soldiers.

I panicked and ran knowing their purpose was to thrust their cold bayonets into enemy hearts. I
was certain of what I saw.... Or was i? Could the soldier's coats have simply been the soft gray
fur of gentle deer?

Were the screams my own or a rebel yell by Confederate ghosts soldiers once again launching their
futile attack? I may never know. July 11th is the anniversary of the attack. You could go to there and
let me know what you see if you survive…

Sorry this is not in Fairfax but in nearby Loudoun county. I live in Sugarland Sterling, VA. Last year in September I was looking out my patio door. I saw an old man walking on the walking path. I was standing there just watching, and all of the sudden he vanished. Then I knew he was a ghost . All of the time you can smell lilacs in the air, but there's no lilacs that bloom in the fall or winter time.

Loudoun County is home to equestrians, antique dealers, farmers, winemakers, and according to many, ghosts. It seems like nearly everyone you talk to in Loudoun has a story about a friend of a friend who heard a voice, or saw a face, or felt a tap on his shoulder.

Some local ghost stories are well documented, with historical accounts to back them up. For instance, the ghost who haunts the Glenfiddich house on North King Street in Leesburg, has been determined to be Col. Erasmus Burt who died in the house after being wounded in the October, 1861 Battle of Balls Bluff. The blood he reportedly spilled as he was carried into the house is said to reappear on the stairs at night. Burt has occasionally appeared in the house, standing in the hall in full uniform, but he has only appeared during daylight hours.

Some circulating stories, however, seem all too similar to urban legends told all over the country. One such story, also associated with the deadly Battle of Balls Bluff, involves some teenagers who were hanging out near the Balls Bluff cemetery several years back. They heard the sounds of screaming and ran back to their car. When they got there, the car would not move. When it suddenly lurched forward, the teens drove it back to town where they later found mysterious muddy handprints on the trunk.

One person who collects stories like these to share on the Loudoun Museum’s Hauntings tours is Peter Kelpinski, a member of the Loudoun Museum’s Board of Trustees. “I figure that North King Street is probably the most haunted street in Leesburg and perhaps Loudoun County,” says Kelpinski, who started Hauntings in 1991. “There are [ghosts in] the Lynch and Glenfiddich houses, the Courthouse, the Sona Bank— and there is supposed to be a ghost in one of the restaurants,” although, Kelpinski admits, he hasn’t learned much about that last story yet.

The Lynch house has become home to one of the best known hauntings in Leesburg. “It’s so popular because it’s a great story,” says Kelpinski. “It’s the Woman in White.” Years of research have given the Woman in White a name: Liza Thompson. She lived in the house during the Civil War. When her husband, who had left the deed to the house with a local banker, never came back from the war, she was forced to undergo a long legal battle to keep the house. Many believe that, because she fought so hard to stay in her home, she refused to leave it even after her death.

The stories of Liza’s ghost began when a child living in the house began reporting that he had seen a woman in white in his bedroom. It became clear that the boy was not just imagining the apparition when some guests of the Lynch’s who were staying in his room saw Liza as well. The current residents of the Lynch house are not afraid of Liza, as they have always felt that she is “a benevolent presence.”

The Lynch house is also where Peter Kelpinski said he had his first encounter with the paranormal. He was alone in the house preparing for that year’s tours when he heard a disembodied laugh from one corner of the parlor. It was later that evening that Kelpinski learned that a psychic had recently revealed that Liza was not the only ghost in the Lynch house, but that there was also a man who lurked in the very corner from which Kelpinski heard the laugh!

One of Kelpinski’s favorite stories is a little too far out of the way to be included on the Hauntings tours, but involves a house on West Market Street in Leesburg. It was once the home of Mr. and Mrs. Nichols. Mrs. Nichols reportedly loved children, but was never able to have any of her own. Recently, a family with two young children were staying at that house for the holidays. The adults were preparing for a Christmas party while the children were playing in a large upstairs ballroom. When their mother called the children so that she could help them get dressed in their party clothes, they came down the stairs already dressed in clean, pressed clothes; the young girl’s hair braided and tied with ribbon. Their mother, who knew they could not get dressed on their own, asked how they did it. “The nice lady upstairs helped us,” they told her. Sometime later, when they were looking over some old things from the house, the children identified a photo of Mrs. Nichols as the woman who helped them dress for the Christmas party.

When asked why all these ghost stories should be associated with the Loudoun Museum, Kelpinski insists that it’s not just about the ghosts, “It’s about oral history,” he says, “It’s preserving the local lore.” And it’s about having fun. On the tour, he says, “People aren’t going to jump out with a chainsaw. It’s to scare you with a good story.”

For people eager to hear more spooky stories, this year’s Hauntings Tours will take place on Friday, October 28 and Saturday October 29. Tours leave from the Leesburg Town Hall every 15 minutes from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. For tickets and more information call 703-777-7427 or visit http://www.loudounmuseum.org/hauntings.html.

Did She Get Away With Murder?
A Loudoun County woman, Emily Lloyd, was the “Casey Anthony” of 1872. She was vilified by headlines across the country when she was charged and tried for poisoning her daughter, Maude. Members of the community became alarmed when every member of the Lloyd household: Emily’s husband Charles, his aunt, the Lloyd’s two sons, a daughter, and finally Maude, all died of similar symptoms within a few months of each other. Lloyd responded to concerns by saying simply that “All the Lloyds die that way,” as if there was some genetic disease which killed them.

A pharmacist testified that he had sold arsenic to Lloyd when she complained of a rat infestation in her home. It was probably the testimony of several doctors who could not entirely rule out the possibility of other diseases with similar symptoms to arsenic poisoning, which forced the jury to return the verdict of not guilty on October 31, 1872.
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speaking of loudoun..... Wrote:
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> Did She Get Away With Murder?
> A Loudoun County woman, Emily Lloyd, was the
> “Casey Anthony” of 1872. She was vilified by
> headlines across the country when she was charged
> and tried for poisoning her daughter, Maude.
> Members of the community became alarmed when every
> member of the Lloyd household: Emily’s husband
> Charles, his aunt, the Lloyd’s two sons, a
> daughter, and finally Maude, all died of similar
> symptoms within a few months of each other. Lloyd
> responded to concerns by saying simply that “All
> the Lloyds die that way,” as if there was some
> genetic disease which killed them.
>
> A pharmacist testified that he had sold arsenic to
> Lloyd when she complained of a rat infestation in
> her home. It was probably the testimony of several
> doctors who could not entirely rule out the
> possibility of other diseases with similar
> symptoms to arsenic poisoning, which forced the
> jury to return the verdict of not guilty on
> October 31, 1872.
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I just returned this week from a business trip to D.C. with three other co-workers. In our free time we did as much site seeing as possible. I managed to take about 100 digital photos of a lot of the historical sites in D.C. A few days after arriving back home my daughters and I were reviewing the photos and found a very disturbing site. It is clearly an image of something from the paranormal life, this is a very vivid photo of some thing that is clearly no longer a human being and it is right in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
I have never seen anything in my life that would ever make me believe in the paranormal world, until now. This photo has been viewed by some 30 to 35 people and they are all in agreement that it is something from the paranormal world.

My family and I went to all the museums in Washington, I saw ghosts in all of them. My parents don't believe me but the ghosts were real. I don't know who they were though. They looked like they were from a long time ago.

They looked like workers, maybe workers who died while building the buildings?

We lived in a somewhat new subdivision on Carousel Lane. There was definitely a ghost in our house. Things would be dropped in the night. Sometimes the garage smelled of natural gas. You would see things out of the corner of your eye, etc. One night while discussing ''our ghost'' I clearly tuned into his first name. Turns out the owner of a nearby house died from a gas explosion on his property next door. Incidentally I was right about his name - spooky.

Friendly ghost but wanted to make sure you knew he was there. He liked when the house was peaceful, but activity increased if someone in the house was angry about something.

Hi, I am a sophomore at JMU living in Rockingham Hall, the awkward off-campus dorm that used to be a hotel. This place is always so empty! When I first moved in I heard a lot of odd creaks and such but attributed the noises to being able to hear into the rooms on either side of my own.

However once after taking a shower I had brushed my teeth and when I looked back at the mirror after putting my things back into place I noticed a hand print much too large to be my own on the mirror.

It was pretty strange but I did not feel threatened or anything. I also have heard the door to my room open and close when no one has come in and plenty of odd creaks and groans. Pretty weird. PS this dorm does not suck! It's not too far from campus and the RAs are not as strict as in other dorms! Also the rooms are bigger and you get a bathroom connected to the room so no awkward community bathroom :).

The girl’s strawberry blond hair bobbed in ringlets like Shirley Temple’s. She wore a ruffled, light-colored dress. At first Greg York thought it was his daughter, but this girl, in addition to wearing period clothing, was older. And transparent. He could see right through her, to the wood staircase on which she was sitting.

He froze in the foyer of the Victorian-era clubhouse that overlooked his community pool, gripping the old paint cans he was removing from the crumbling stone basement.

Look away, he told himself with unnatural serenity, and when you look back the ghost will be gone.

He did. She wasn’t. She was still there, watching the man who had moved into her house and would eventually oversee its demolition.

York bolted out the front door, scared as hell, down the embankment, toward the pool, as if the bitter incense of chlorine would ward off whatever he’d just seen.
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In 1995 or early 96, a group of black shapes appeared on the recently painted white bedroom wall. This happened late at night, on a night I happened to be awake. I wasn't awake due to any duress or stress. I just happened to be awake. Then it became stressful, in fact terrifying. The shapes began to solidify, becoming one shape, and moving in a sort of spiral. I was literally paralyzed.

Somehow I made it through the night despite the overwhelming presence of something very evil trying to overtake me. (Thanks Lord for not letting that happen. ) I asked the landlord if anything weird or dramatic had happened in the past in this apartment. To his knowledge the answer was No. But two doors down there was a suicide two months earlier, and the apartments are all connected. This was truly a strange scary experience.

My boyfriend Chad and I were walking my dog down a street by a cemetery in Oakton and I thought I heard whispering, figuring it might be someone talking in their house or someone else might be walking near us. I ignored it, I noticed that my dog was acting strange, he kept stopping and staring. We heard something walking, we thought that it might have been a deer or a bunny so we kept trying to walk past. Then it kept sounding like something was running up behind us.

We turned around, nothing was there, so we kept walking and we kept having the feeling of being followed by something. I kept hearing like whispers, it creeped me out so bad I had to turn off the nearest road. I never want to walk down there ever again. Has anyone else experienced anythign like this? We were next to Flint Hilly Cemetary in Oakton.
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I have relatives that are buried there. I remember back when I was a little kid and my grandmother would take us over there a few times a week and the place always seemed "crowded" (a lot of people were in there). I've often wondered if I was seeing ghosts there as a kid.

We lived in a house on Botts Avenue in Woodbridge, our house had to what seemed to be multiple spirits. Everyone in my family and anyone who ever visited had some type of experience in that house.

I once saw a shadow of a baby crawl across the hallway to one o the bedrooms upstairs. It was well know to everyone who came to our house that they would hear children call their names in a playful manner.

A ball everyday would be heard bouncing in the attic. My grandmother once saw two children, a girl and a younger boy around the same age as my sister and I and she thought it was us that she saw run by the kitchen and go downstairs. She said that about 20 minutes after my sister and I came home from school. There were several occasions where we were physically bothered. I was moved under the couch while I was sleeping, my sister was moved under the bed of an empty room, also my brother and his friends went to our house after we had to leave for sometime for some work to be done to the house on some pipes.

They were drinking in the living room when a penny was thrown from what seemed to be from one of the bedrooms to the living room where they were, and again until they felt uncomfortable and left. And as they were leaving my brother was grabbed by the shirt as he stepped out the door and the door closed and the curtain on the window moved as if someone wanted to see what we did.

There were countless events that occurred which I could speak of. If anyone sees this and has questions or would like hear more stories I could be contacted through email at wua1993@gmail.com.

Many full moons ago I worked as a manager at a sports bar in Woodbridge, VA. I worked there for many years without so much as an odd occurrence, aside from the occasional intoxicated patron that frequented the establishment and made our lives interesting on a nightly basis. One particular evening, around 3am, I was wiping down tables, flipping chairs, etc, and pretty much minding my own business, as there were only two employees remaining at that hour...myself and a bartender, who was in the office counting her drawer. As I'm going through the 'closing routine' I felt a definitive tug on my apron string...out of sheer habit, I swung around to slug the person who had tugged on my string. To my surprise there was absolutely no one there...NO ONE, the bar was eerily quite and still. Given the late hour, I chalked it up to being overly tired.

I began to walk toward the office...out of nowhere, a HUGE gush of ice cold air came down from above with such force it practically knocked me off my feet. Mind you, this was mid-summer and yes, we were running the A/C. However, when I looked up, there was absolutely no sign of an air conditioning duct or anything that would have even remotely created that type of pressure, warm or cold! Let me just say I was a little unnerved. I continued on with my chores, never mentioning to the bartender what I had experienced, I locked up with and with her in tow we went our separate ways.

Shortly there after on yet another interesting evening, I was going through my ritual of cleaning up when I heard someone whistling a beautiful little piece. A few minutes went by before I yelled out to the bouncer, (who aside from him were two bartenders doing their paper work in the office) "Pete, that's such a beautiful tune you're whistling, what is it?" Pete cocked his head to the side and asked me what in the world I was talking about. I laughed, thinking he was joking and said "come on Pete, that tune you were whistling, what was it?" He walked a little closer and looked me in the eye and said "Megan, I don't know how to whistle!" Thinking he was playing one of his many jokes with me, I let it go....Until, one week later, the bar manager, myself, and a bartender were sitting down after a particularly hectic night and began to recant our evenings experiences, our lives and....."The Farmer". According to the bar manager, the strip plaza that our bar was located in was built on top of an old airport, which was built on top of old farm land, complete with a working farm. Apparently "The Farmer" who owned the original land enjoys making appearances to individuals and letting himself be 'known'. The bar manager began to relate several stories to me regarding "The Farmer" who she herself has actually seen on numerous occasions and I was captivated. She described him as being in his 60's with white hair, wearing bib-over-alls, and....whistling beautiful tunes!! Fortunately or unfortunately, after that night I never experienced any other odd occurrences relating to "The Farmer", but I have my very own ghost story to tell, and if you're ever down in Woodbridge enjoying libations at a particular sports bar, keep your eyes and ears out for "The Farmer" and tell him an old friend says "hello".

Clifford Street is haunted because a rumor that a guy from across told me the basement was haunted but I never down after the story. Then grandma said before I was born my grandpa died down there from a heart attack.

Recently we went to Old Town Alexandria, VA for a colonial ghost tour of what used to be one of he nation's most major ports. A little history: the city was originally founded by John Alexander in 1669. In 1732 it became known as Hunting Creek Warehouse, and wasn't actually called Alexandria until 1749, when a gaggle of Scots moved there and named the land after - you guessed it! - John Alexander. The city was actually part of the District of Columbia from 1801 - 1847.
Now, as per usual, our favorite three haunted tales, plus a little bonus story:

1. The Bride of Alexandria: In 1865, the town of Alexandria saw the local beauty - Miss Laura Schaeffer - become engaged to the charming and successful Charles Tennyson, undoubtedly a perfect match. On the day of the affair, while guests mingled downstairs, Laura's bridesmaids buttoned up the pearl buttons running up the back of her dress, and tended to her 45 foot train. Laura asked her girlfriends to give her a moment, to calm her nerves. She built a little fire on this unusually cool June day, and almost immediately smelled something burning - her train. She tried to fan it out with he skirts, but it only grew. She raced to the bedroom door, but it was jammed shut. She screamed, but no one could hear her down below in the garden. Finally she wrenched the door open and was able to scream loud enough for her beloved Charles to come racing the bottom of the steps - just as a burning Laura came tumbling down. Laura would died due to the severity of her burns, and within the year Charles would die of a broken heart. The building would later become a real estate office, where an employee would claim to hear a noise coming from an upstairs bedroom. When the woman went to open the door to the bedroom from which the noise was coming, it was jammed shut. When - after many attempts - she finally got it open, she was knocked down by a large gust of wind, but there was no one inside. At the bottom of the stairs, though, she could hear the sighs of relief coming from Laura's ghost. Later, the building would go on to become what it is today - a candy store. It seems that children see Laura more than adults, as more than one child has asked, "Why is that lady crying?" presumably referring to the ghost of Laura Schaeffer, crying over her severe burns and ruined wedding.

The candy store where Laura Schaeffer died.

2. The Couple Who Cried Ghost: Dr. James Craik was a revolutionary was surgeon, as well as best friend and personal physician of George Washington. His home in Alexandria (on Duke St.) is known to be one of the most haunted properties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Many years after his death, a young couple was renting the property when - on a cold, rainy night - they heard a knock at the door. The wife opened it to find a tall, gaunt man dressed in a sailor's raincoat. "Can I help you?" she asked politely. The sailor gruffly responded, "I want to see James." Coincidentally enough, the woman's husband shared the same name as Dr. James Craik. So she invited the sailor in and told her husband he had a visitor. "You're not James!" he cried, and he stormed not back out, but to the second floor bedroom! The couple became even more confused when they heard him muttering to himself - and then heard someone muttering back! Suddenly they heard fighting, so - huddling by the front door - they called the police. As soon as the officer arrived at the front door, the noise upstairs ceased. The officer is getting suspicious of the couple now, but the wife pipes up, "I think they killed each other," so the officer gets out his gun and begins to make his way to the second floor, where he finds... nothing. After scolding the couple, he leaves, but so do they - to a local hotel, where they spend the night before packing up and leaving town the next morning!

3. Short(er) Jack: At the turn of the 20th century, Alexandria was frequented by a short man with long, crazy red hair and a matching beard named Jack, but (not so) affectionately referred to by all as Short Jack. Short Jack worked on a ship, and whenever that ship came to Alexandria's harbor he would make his way to the local bar. Frequently Jack would take his drinks to go, and whenever he was halfway done his bottle he would fall asleep. This was never a problem for Jack before - until he fell asleep on the trolley tracks. One foggy night, as the trolly conductor was making his way through the streets, he hit a bump. He stopped and got out to see the bloodied body of Short Jack - but no head. Panicked, he calls the police and they searched for Short Jack's head for hours before giving up, and ultimately decided to bury the little sailor headless. Several weeks later, as the conductor was on his route again, he saw several children and dog playing with something - a red, hairy something. As he approached them he saw Short Jack's head in the clamped-shut jaws of the dog. He tried to pry it out, but to no avail. The dog sprinted away with the head, and it was never seen again. Now, on dark, foggy nights, one may see Short (now shorter) Jack, stumbling around and looking for his lost head through the streets of Old Town Alexandria.

Bonus!: The Story of Pink Lemonade: Back in the colonial period, ice was a little harder to come by than today: it would be sent on barges down the Potomac River, and then kept in an ice house where the locals would come buy it by the pound. Ice was also used to preserve dead bodies: one could rent a slab of it to "put that stiff on ice" - i.e. keep the body from decomposing too badly - and then return it. When the owner of the local tavern bought some ice for his bar, he didn't realize he was getting the used stuff. One night, he sent his tavern servant down to their ice well to fetch the recently purchased ice. Well, the boy wasn't the brightest of the bunch, and he brought up some not-so-clean ice. Soon customers started commenting on the unusual taste and pinkish hue of the drinks that evening. The tavern owner quickly realized what was happening - they were drinking the ice that once held a dead body! Cleverly thinking on his feet, he added a little sugar and lemon and voila - pink lemonade!
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I used to work for the County of Gloucester. (2000 - 2005) across the street from the historic Courthouse Circle is a museum... I'm not sure of the ''blur'' that whizzed past me upstairs but I had the crazy weird feeling every time I went in there to do my job.

I just flat out refused to work in that building anymore and was reassigned.

Sugarland ghost Wrote:
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> Sorry this is not in Fairfax but in nearby Loudoun
> county. I live in Sugarland Sterling, VA. Last
> year in September I was looking out my patio door.
> I saw an old man walking on the walking path. I
> was standing there just watching, and all of the
> sudden he vanished. Then I knew he was a ghost .
> All of the time you can smell lilacs in the air,
> but there's no lilacs that bloom in the fall or
> winter time.

We have been seeing images in my house now for about 4 years. My daughter and son have both seen the ghost also. As recently as 4 weeks ago on a Saturday morning my son had his first sighting. He wasn't very happy about it and was a little freaked out. He is 18 and never experienced anything like that before. So far nothing bad has happened just things that make you think a little.

I live in a home on Cardinal Glen Circle in Sterling and would like to know if anyone has any info about this residence and sightings or deaths in the house or the neighborhood. Thanks.

Broad Run high Ghosts Wrote:
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> I've had a few encounters at Broad Run high. The
> first one occurred sometime in 2012 in room 205. I
> was sitting in the back of the room reading a
> book. Then suddenly I felt this harsh cold air
> like someone was blowing air directly on my neck.
> I was sitting against the wall so obviously no one
> was sitting behind me. The source was coming
> directly out of the wall (no vents were on said
> wall). It occurred for about 30 seconds then
> stopped.
>
> The next one occurred on the last day of the same
> school year. It happened in the bathroom of room
> 9. I knocked to use the bathroom when I hear this
> very faint ''someone's in here''. I turned around
> for 10 seconds, then got suspicious of how quiet
> it sounded. I opened the door no one was in there
> and the lights were off. It couldn't have been
> anyone else it the room playing tricks. I heard it
> directly on the other side of the door. The room
> is small so if someone was in there I would have
> seen them walk out.

That is creepy, I did the Bloody Mary trick at Crieghtons Corner and the lights flickered, I felt something on my shoulder and so did my best friend that was there.

My wife just saw a ghost dressed as a Civil War soldier walking along Route 29, tonight at around 8pm. She said he was semi-transparent with naval blue pants walking away from the the battlefield in the direction of the intersection of Rt. 29 and Heathcote.

Off of Gleedsville Road you will see various supernatural occurrences happening. Just taking a picture in my house there have been shadows when no one is there and lights and fans that turn on and off without anyone being there. If you really want a haunted time, hit up Gleedsville Cemetery when the sun goes down and take some pictures. You are sure to see orbs and other unexplainable objects in the picture.

We live in Falmouth, VA and our neighborhood was built where union soldiers camped during the Civil War. My own ancestor was at Camp Mud, a five minute walk from my house. There are many ghosts sighting in the area, but that is not why I am posting here. I have a visitor. He looks like glass and can be seen in a dark room, but he does not glow. He has no color. He's been here twice that I'm aware of, but I don't doubt he's responsible for things falling around the house, lights turning off and on, and odd sounds.

I've searched the web for similar pictures of ghosts and can't find anything that looks like my visitor. It's odd, the way he looks. He appears in dark rooms. I can see his outline, but he's not white or any other color. I don't know if he is friendly or evil, though the second time I saw him I let out a yelp and scared a teen in the next room. The first time I saw him I felt confused. We have a toddler running around the house, and sometimes he enters a room and quickly runs back out scared. I can feel his little heart racing. If I had dreamed up a ghost, it would have been some floating and cloudy looking thing. The one that visits is creepy, something I can't draw or paint.

Not in Fairfax, but we live on Cedar Street in Smithfield, VA, and my house is surely haunted. My family and I always hear footsteps upstairs. We know they are footsteps because the floor creaks when you walk in my mom and dad's room. The living room is right under their bed room, so we hear the noise often. Also in my little sister's room I always see orbs or glowing lights at night. I didn't tell my sister because if I did, she wouldn't sleep there. Another encounter I have had was last year. My mom had put her phone on the couch, and five seconds later it flew off the couch hitting the floor! It scared both of us to death. We were the only ones in the house at that time.

Me and my sister both saw something in our house. We lived there for about 4 years and when we first moved in it was completely fine. First me, my brother, mom, and sister were talking. Then my sister just randomly brought up ghost. She said she's been seeing a little girl roam around our house and thinking it was me, and we all just laughed.

About 2 or 3 months later I was eating a sandwich, and I saw a little girl run into my room from my mom's room. My mom's room is across from my room. Anyway I got so scared, but I ran into my room, and no one was there. I forgot to mention that I was alone. I also forgot to mention that, before ALL of that happened, every time I would leave my mom's room I felt like someone was behind me, so I'd just run.

I don't know why this is happening. I never believed in anything like this, and my mom doesn't believe me. I don't know if this is a ghost or a demon. I NEED some answers.

I stumbled upon this website and decided to tell my story from when I was a little girl. I lived in Lester Mobile Home Park before the old office building was torn down and the mobile home park was removed. My home was directly across the building. One day my friends and I decided to throw pebbles into a window. The windows had broken slabs on it. The building was completely boarded up and hadn't been used in many years. Nothing happened for a few minutes, and we started joking and laughing.

Next we know the pebbles were thrown back at us and really hard and in a perfect line. We ran away screaming. Another time a few of us snuck in, and we were nosing around when we heard a loud thump and a machine turned on by itself. Finally after the building was torn down, a couple of times a week at the same time in the early morning I would hear a child crying followed by a dog whimpering. I would look out and not see anything. I would hear it fading away like it was moving away. I have never seen anything. It was kind of frightening.

I'm curious to hear if anyone has seen ghosts in Pearl Harbor. Obviously not part of Fairfax County, but I'm curious to know if any tourists, veterans, or military personnel have seen any ghosts there and would share their story.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched its attack on the Naval Station in Pearl Harbor. Thousands were killed and wounded in the strike. But the attacks weren’t solely aimed at the Pearl Harbor Naval Station—the Hickam Air Force Base next to it was targeted as well. Ghostly apparitions, unexplained lights, and eerie noises are said to be common around the historic site.

One building at the Hickam Air Force Base still bears the bullet holes inflicted by the 1941 attack. It is said that this is the location where hundreds of soldiers died from their wounds. Visitors and workers claim to have seen ghostly soldiers walking around the corridors, and footsteps and painful moans can be heard echoing in empty rooms.

There is a guard shack in Hickam that is said to be especially haunted. A soldier was said to have been shot dead inside and, late at night, witnesses say they can see a soldier dressed in a military uniform from the 1940s standing guard in the shack. Other ghosts have been seen at the dock of the USS Arizona, which was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. The ship sank and all the soldiers aboard perished. Apparitions of soldiers are rumored to patrol the area even during the day.

Many visitors report feeling a great sense of sadness, being frightened for no apparent reason, or extreme pain. The ghost of a soldier who was shot after leaving his post during the attack is said to haunt the deck of the sunken ship during low tide. Some of the remains of the deceased soldiers are still in the ship to this day.
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I read some of the stories here about hidden pond in springfield. At hidden pond off Greely I had a friend that went to the park almost everyday. A couple months ago (around February 2014) he committed suicide at his house. A month after multiple people reported seeing him in the woods.

Pearl Harbor Ghosts? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm curious to hear if anyone has seen ghosts in
> Pearl Harbor. Obviously not part of Fairfax
> County, but I'm curious to know if any tourists,
> veterans, or military personnel have seen any
> ghosts there and would share their story.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ~
>
> The Haunting Of Pearl Harbor
> http://listverse.com/2014/04/26/10-spooky-stories-
> from-hawaii/
>
> On December 7, 1941, Japan launched its attack on
> the Naval Station in Pearl Harbor. Thousands were
> killed and wounded in the strike. But the attacks
> weren’t solely aimed at the Pearl Harbor Naval
> Station—the Hickam Air Force Base next to it was
> targeted as well. Ghostly apparitions, unexplained
> lights, and eerie noises are said to be common
> around the historic site.
>
> One building at the Hickam Air Force Base still
> bears the bullet holes inflicted by the 1941
> attack. It is said that this is the location where
> hundreds of soldiers died from their wounds.
> Visitors and workers claim to have seen ghostly
> soldiers walking around the corridors, and
> footsteps and painful moans can be heard echoing
> in empty rooms.
>
> There is a guard shack in Hickam that is said to
> be especially haunted. A soldier was said to have
> been shot dead inside and, late at night,
> witnesses say they can see a soldier dressed in a
> military uniform from the 1940s standing guard in
> the shack. Other ghosts have been seen at the dock
> of the USS Arizona, which was at Pearl Harbor when
> the Japanese attacked. The ship sank and all the
> soldiers aboard perished. Apparitions of soldiers
> are rumored to patrol the area even during the
> day.
>
> Many visitors report feeling a great sense of
> sadness, being frightened for no apparent reason,
> or extreme pain. The ghost of a soldier who was
> shot after leaving his post during the attack is
> said to haunt the deck of the sunken ship during
> low tide. Some of the remains of the deceased
> soldiers are still in the ship to this day.

I've had some experiences out at the bases in Hawaii. This is one of two experiences that I had while stationed at Hickham Air Force Base as a security specialist on the island of Oahu, Hawaii in the mid 90s. This incident would occur in 1997. The first day we were processed in, the other troops there started telling us new guys ghost stories. I thought they were just messing with us until I had been there for a little while. It took all of one shift to start verifying the most prevalent story told on the base. It involves the 12th Air Force Headquarters Building being haunted by the war dead of Pearl Harbor. The Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) Command is also located in this building, so it is a very important place that requires strict security. There are manned security posts on the premises as well as state of the art laser and camera systems blanketing the property. (As it should be!)

Anyway, a little historical background on the building. During the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, the building was used as a hospital and temporary morgue. Over a thousand dead servicemen were stored there until their remains could be dealt with properly. Many of them would die in the building while being treated. There was so much blood that the cleanup required stringing of hoses throughout the building and washing the floors with scrub brushes. Pretty gruesome and for sure sets a good stage for some paranormal happenings.

Well, the first night on shift, around 3 am, the motion alarms went nuts and the SRT (special response team) was called to respond. I was training with the base patrol that night, so we went that way and provided backup. Every guy there seemed more tense than they should be. Something strange then happened to me. Instead of the SRT going in the building and clearing it, they simply reset the alarm and documented the occurrence. Anyone who knows anything about military security knows this is extremely unusual and not protocol.

Well, when we returned to our patrol, I asked my FTO (Field Training Officer) "why?" that just went down that way. This is what he told me: "It happens every night, usually between 3 and 330!" He also let me in on why there was a little shack outside the front door of the building, instead of the guard being posted at the CQ desk in the lobby of HQ. Almost every airman that tried to work the post, would refuse to stay in there because they would hear walking and inaudible talking, smell what was described as rotten meat or a slaughter house smell, and the stairs in front of that location would squeak and vibrate violently on a regular basis.

I was still thinking that this was them messing with me. It just seemed like it was a little too scripted. Man, was I wrong! For the next 6 months I was there, this alarm thing would occur each and every night between 3 and 330, just like the Sergeant said. I saw military working dogs refuse to go in to search. Every dog would whimper, growl, and try to hide behind their handler. Those of you who know, know that military working dogs don't refuse service! I also witnessed grown men choose to sit on a stool in a 4x4 foot shack instead of at a nice desk in a spacious, air conditioned lobby.

I quickly became one of those guys in the shack! I experienced the walking, talking and stairs all in about the first hour of my first shift on that post. My shift on the HQ post began at midnight and by 0100 or so, my time of trying to stay at the CQ desk was over! I was pretty shaken. I never experienced the smells, but would experience the sounds on several occasions. Then at 3:17 am, the alarm went off-motion detected in the basement and on the third floor! There had been nobody there since 5pm, when the building had been secured for the evening. Peculiar thing, very seldom did anyone come back in the evening to work there alone. I think I remember only about two times in my six months that anyone came back to work after 5 pm. And they did not stay long... In and out so to speak!

These are my experiences at the HQ building on Hickham AFB. I would be interested in knowing if there are any other former SF guys on this site who have had similar experiences while stationed there. It was creepy, and I experienced these things on several occasions, but the alarm thing was EVERY MORNING, without fail! Extremely unnerving place to work. (The days off were great, though!)

At Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, “Charley” has haunted the halls of the Pacific Air Forces headquarters building since the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Known as Hale Makai, Hawaiian for “house by the sea,” it was once the largest building in the U.S. military. In 1941 it was a 3,200-man dormitory on that day of infamy. More than 60 Soldiers — most eating breakfast — died in the building during the attack. Today, it’s still an ominous place.

“It can be spooky here at night. Sound tends to migrate through the long hallways,” Bill Harris said. The deputy command historian won’t say he believes in ghosts. “But I’m not going to say he’s not out there, either.”

There were a rash of Charley sightings in the 1980’s. People heard loud footsteps and keys jangling in empty hallways. Two women said “something” switched their radio to other stations. A janitor saw a water faucet in a bathroom suddenly turn on by itself. And a sergeant ran out of the building when heavy glass doors started to swing open — back and fourth — rapidly.

The standard answer people use to explain the strange goings-on: “That’s just Charley.”

The command historian at the time, Lea Arakaki, documented the strange events in her histories. Proof that Charley was part of the command. One entry read: Security forces didn’t like walking the halls at night because they were “nervous about ghosts wandering around.”

Ghost man in VA hospital Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So I work in a nursing home, and due to HIPAA
> regulations, I will not include names or my
> location. We have a "ghost" man that is seen
> during periods of death. What I mean by periods of
> death is usually we have residents die in sets of
> 3, 6, 9, and occasionally 12. It's unfortunate and
> scary, but when our resident "angel of death" that
> we refer to as "the man in the brown suit" is
> seen, I can't help but get an extremely uneasy
> feeling.
>
> Sometimes he is seen by the person whom passes,
> but usually he is seen by persons whom do not. He
> is always described as a male, with white hair,
> wearing a brown suit, hat, and tie. The residents
> that see him are very frightened.
>
> Normally, he simply passes by their room and looks
> at them. Occasionally, it has been reported he
> comes out of the closet, or through the wall, or
> simply been sitting in a chair in their room.
> Once, he asked a resident what the time was.
> Another time a blind woman described him in
> detail. I would not have believed it, had I not
> already heard the stories.
>
> He is seen during all hours of the day, but more
> often at night; however, every time he is reported
> as being seen, someone passes away. Nurses and
> CNA's have seen him as well, like walk into a
> room, but then he is gone when they investigate. I
> personally have seen a shadow in the corner of my
> eye, but it disappears when I turn to look. For
> that I am thankful because I do not want to see
> him... I would probably quit.
>
> I just wonder who he is and what he wants? It's
> creepy. Could he really be taking people to the
> other side? I'm not sure if it is him or not, but
> sometimes call lights will go off by themselves
> and once a bed started raising while I was
> changing a resident without me pushing the button.
> Perhaps it is more than one ghost.

The hospital were I worked for many years had an old wing that was no longer used for patients.
There were offices and storage rooms and radiology had a clinic on the first floor, but there had
not been inpatients there in years. The old hospital was easily accessed by a short corridor to the
main hospital. I am a rational woman, but I always felt that the 5th floor of the old hospital was
particularly dark and creepy. It was here where the education department stored their extra equipment
for discharge teaching...annie dolls and the like. One evening shift I mentioned to a security guard
that I thought the old hospital was creepy and he told me that he had seen a child run around the
5th floor with the old fashioned pajamas...the kind with the rear end that had a flap that buttoned
up. The child laughed and ran down a dark corridor. The guard followed the corridor and found an empty
room that housekeeping used to store cribs. There were plenty of cribs but no child wearing old fashioned
pjs. He checking with the closest nursing unit (hem/onc) and no child was wearing old fashioned pjs.

This guy wasn't one to make up stories. Perhaps our minds get the better of us in these situations,
or perhaps some people are more sensitive to such things than others. I've never seen a ghost myself,
but then again, I avoided the old 5th floor whenever possible. Ghost or no ghost, it was a creepy place.
That wing was torn down about fifteen years ago and the education department moved to a brand new
building ....very bright with modern sleek lines.....not at all a kind of place where one would expect
to encounter a ghost.

As with many of Virginia’s great landmarks, Aquia Church has a ghost story attached. The legend tells of a young woman murdered in this National Historic Landmark church at some time in the eighteenth century and her body hidden in belfry. Accordingly, her spirit descends from the belfry at night and has been witnessed by many over the centuries. One caretaker also spoke of seeing shadowy figures among the tombstones in the graveyard. The current Aquia Church building was built in 1751 and destroyed by fire just before the construction was complete. Using the remaining brick walls, the church was rebuilt in 1757.
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One time I was staying late at a Long term care center and doing some charting. Everyone was in bed. All of a sudden, me and the CNAs could hear someone playing the piano very loudly down in the day room. We were wondering who could be up, and would be playing the piano at that time of night since very few of our residents would play...even during the day. The CNAs looked at me and said "everyone should be in bed". They did not want to go look. The hair was standing up on my arms, but I figured I was being silly. I had to check out the situation. The music was heard again so I started walking down the hall to the dayroom. One of the aides decided she didn't want me going alone and walked with me. I had goosebumps when we neared the room and I looked at her and said "were not going to find anyone in there are we?" She didn't think so either. Well there wasn't anyone in there...the piano was shut and when I went near the piano I was overwhelmed by a strong smell of perfume.

A few years ago on HBO they did a special on hospice and how it helped 3 people. One of them was a small child who had a degenerative condition and was in drug induced coma. He had exceeded the time in hospice when he was expected to die. The case managers/nurses all met and staffed care. They decided the child was waiting to see his mother who had been banned by the father/daughter from seeing him. The mother had left the family after finding out the boy was sick. The father and daughter could not/would not forgive her. They were convinced reluctantly to allow the mother to come see her son. The cameras for HBO were running when the mother held her son and he died in her arms. So yes I think they hold on for their own reasons or the families are not ready to let them go keeping them from releasing.

I lived at my parent’s house in Hopkinton, MA until 2012, from the time I was 9 years old until the time I was 24. I always knew something was creepy about that house since it used to be an old hunting lodge.

My first experience happened when I was 11. My grandfather passed away, and one night after his funeral I was in bed and saw a man in the corner of my room that looked like my grandfather. I said goodbye and he looked at me and walked out.

My second experience happened when I had a friend sleep over. We slept in the den and next to the den was a mudroom with creepy stairs. I heard a heavy banging sound coming from the stairs, so I went to check it out and saw what looked like a hunter. He was wearing hunting boots and camouflage and had a gun on him. I was freaked out.

I've heard all kinds of ghost stories from co-workers. Now, I don't believe in ghosts, but when strange things happen, I still find it a little creepy. These are two things that have happened to me:

1. I arrived at work very early one morning, and as soon as I stepped off the elevator a call bell was ringing. I answered it, and it was a resident asking if someone could come into his room and turn the light on. I went into the room and asked what he needed, and he said, "There's a man on my ceiling! Do you see him? Get him out of here!" The resident had the most terrified look on his face. I assured the resident that no one was there. I even pulled the curtain back to show him. He looked frightened and said, "He's right there! Turn the light on! He keeps looking at me!" After I was able to calm the resident down, I notified the night nurse about what had just happened. This resident never shows any signs of confusion and never hallucinates, to my knowledge. It scared me a little, and I did not want to go back into that room.

2. This one is more funny than scary. Our call bells had been malfunctioning one day. I was at the desk when one of them started ringing. I looked at the screen and it showed "209". Room 209 was empty, and had been empty for weeks. I still answered just in case someone had gone into the room and needed help, but I got no response. I hung up and continued working. I thought nothing of it because the call bells weren't working properly and we were waiting for them to be fixed. A few minutes later, the call bell started ringing again. This time the screen showed "209-bathroom." I found that a little weird, but I answered again, and I got no response for the second time. I had to go into the room to turn off the call bell, because the cancel button has to be pressed from inside the bathroom to make it stop ringing when someone calls from the bathroom. The room was empty. Before opening the bathroom door, I knocked to be sure no one was in there. I got no answer, so I slowly turned the knob. As soon as I opened the door, I heard, "Hey!" I gasped and jumped back. I looked up and saw... a resident on the toilet. That was my ghost. He said he had gone in there to use the bathroom and he pressed the call light to let someone know he needed help. He said he pressed it again after he got into the bathroom and no one had arrived. I asked why he didn't respond when I answered the call bell. He said he probably hadn't heard me.

The inspiration for my upcoming YA time travel novella, 1816 Candles, comes from comes from a famous ghost story in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, as well as Charles Dickens’ classic story, A Christmas Carol.

Alexandria, a picturesque town on the shores of the Potomac River older than our nation’s democracy itself, is full of ghost stories. The most enduring of Old Town’s ghost stories has even been featured on History Channel’s Haunted History — The Legend of the Female Stranger.

This is what is known of the story:
In September 1816, a ship (believed to have originated in the West Indies) docked in Alexandria, which was a neighborhood of Washington, DC at the time. This was not unusual in and of itself, as Alexandria was a bustling seaport in those days. But no ship was expected at that time, so all the townspeople paid close attention.

A man and woman emerged from the ship and made their way up Cameron Street to the City Hotel, which at the time was owned by John Wise. (Today we know this building as Gadsby’s Tavern, which was famous in American history as the site of George Washington’s last two Birthnight Balls. Other prominent historical figures known to frequent the tavern include John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Madison, and the Marquis de la Fayette.)

The presumed husband and wife were shown to Room 8, and it was soon discovered that the woman was ill. Her condition continued to deteriorate until finally the husband summoned the doctor, hotel staff, and even the owner’s wife to Room 8 to ask a very unusual request: everyone present must swear an oath never to reveal their identities. Those in attendance agreed, which in turn began rampant speculation amongst the townspeople about who the strangers might be.

The mysterious woman in Room 8 died a month later, and the man with her commissioned an elaborate tombstone, which still sits in St. Paul’s Church Cemetery just outside of Old Town. It reads:

To the memory of a
FEMALE STRANGER
whose mortal sufferings terminated
on the 14th day of October 1816
Aged 23 years and 8 months

This stone was placed here by her disconsolate
Husband in whose arms she sighed out her
latest breath and who under God
did his utmost even to soothe the cold
dead ear of death.

How loved how valued once avails thee not
To Whom related or by whom begot
A heap of dust alone remains of thee
Tis all though art and all the proud shall be

To him gave all the Prophets witness that
through his name whosoever believeth in
him shall receive remission of sins
Acts. 10th Chap. 43rd verse

Shortly after the female stranger’s death, Alexandria’s merchants went to collect the debt from her “husband.” The tombstone and funeral cost $1500 (worth roughly $25,000 in today’s money), plus the strangers had racked up a month’s worth of room and board at Gadsby’s, as well as medical expenses. Extending a large amount of credit to a refined gentleman was not unusual, but despite the seeming distasteful nature of inquiring about money in the wake of grief, the merchants were now owed a significant sum.

When the merchants arrived at Room 8 to collect, they discovered that the male stranger had disappeared. He’d left town without paying his debts, and was never heard from again. It would be human nature at this point to forget about the supposed “oath” never to reveal the identities of the strangers and to seek justice, but the Alexandria townspeople kept their word. The hotel register was scrubbed clean and all that remained of the event was the anonymous tombstone in St. Paul’s Cemetery and local lore.

Throughout the years, speculation about the Female Stranger’s identity has remained a favorite pastime in Alexandria. Some believe she was Theodosia Burr Alston, the distraught daughter of disgraced Vice President Aaron Burr. Alston was believed to have drowned at sea almost four years before the events unfolded in Alexandria, but of course the gossips said she had faked her own death to leave her husband in order to run away with her lover.

Others believed that the Female Stranger was a kidnapped European princess or possibly even Napoleon in drag. Those who believed the latter story point out that he had been exiled from France in 1815, and that the “23 years, 8 months” on her headstone would date her supposed birth in February 1793, which was the month in which the diminutive French general declared war on England. This theory posits that Napoleon, disguised as the “female stranger,” faked his death and used the burial as a hiding place for treasure stolen from the aristocracy during the French Revolution.

Still others believe the entire situation was an elaborate scam devised by con men, and that both the Male and Female Strangers escaped from the town with a large amount of money, laughing all the way to the bank. The “oath of secrecy” may have been devised by the townspeople themselves to cover up for being duped.

Or then there’s my husband’s favorite explanation — aliens.

Who knows? It all happened nearly two hundred years ago, so perhaps “ancient aliens” would be a more accurate description. Besides, the only people who were ever privy to the events are long dead, so we’ll never know.

Local lore claims that the Female Stranger is known to haunt the hotel to this day. She — or at least a woman in Regency era clothing — is occasionally seen in the upstairs window of Room 8, holding a lit candle. Docents at the Gadsby’s Tavern Museum say they have heard the sound of someone walking around upstairs, only to find there is no one there.

The historic ballroom at Gadsby’s Tavern was the setting of many “public assemblies” in its day, and today remains an important part of “living history.” Playing on the popularity of Jane Austen among young women, the Gadsby’s Tavern Society and the Living History Foundation host frequent costume balls in which attendees dress in period attire and do the famous dances of the time. (Doesn’t everyone want to meet their own Mr. Darcy?)

I first heard the story of the Female Stranger while attending an Alexandria Colonial Tours “Ghosts and Graveyards” tour during a stop in front of Gadsby’s, where I’d already been taking English Country Dance lessons for nearly a year under the tutelage of dancing master Corky Palmer.

After explaining the background events from 1816, the tour guide told us that one evening during a dance that was held there, a young man spotted a woman across the room flirting with him. The reenactment year for the dance was 1799, but she was wearing a dress from about a decade and a half later than that, which struck him as odd. He looked again, but she was not there. But he was intrigued, and walked right down the middle of a longway set, disturbing the dancers in his quest to find her. There was only one place she could have gone that quickly, and that was a nearby bedroom, which happened to be the same one in which the famous Female Stranger had died.

As the man entered the room, he spotted a lit candle on the night stand. Thinking it was a bad idea to have a candle lit in an unattended room, he went downstairs to complain to the hotel manager. After the two returned to the room, they found the candle as if it had never been lit, the wick still white with wax.

I became intrigued by this story, and when I decided that I needed a novella to kick off my new time travel series (although 1816 Candles occurs first chronologically and will be published first, I’d actually written Julie’s story, Party Like It’s 1899, five years earlier), the Female Stranger seemed perfect for exploration. Who was she? Why did her “husband” disappear? Whereas my husband likes to say “maybe it’s aliens,” I tend towards saying “maybe they were time travelers.”

As for combining it with A Christmas Carol, well, you know, ghosts and the past. Besides Dickens’ Victorian morality tale is awesome.

And thus 1816 Candles was born! Look for it on OCTOBER 24, 2013.

Oh, and pssst…the girl and guy inside the snow globe on the cover of 1816 Candles? That’s me and Mr. Brice, when we attended the Jane Austen Ball at Gadsby’s Tavern a few years ago.
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In 1749, Scottish merchant and would-be founding trustee of Alexandria, John Carlyle, purchased two of the best lots in Alexandria, and put up this beautiful mansion—with its unique stone cornice and ornate woodwork—by the early 1750s. Just in time for General Edward Braddock to use the Georgian-style home to plan the French and Indian War.

The place stayed in the Carlyle family until 1827 and eventually served as a Civil War hospital, a particular point of interest for visiting ghost hunters. A 6-year-long restoration began when the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA) acquired the property in 1970.

You can visit to see an annual reenactment of Colonel John Carlyle's 1780 funeral (with a reading of his last will), or go on a Historical Haunt ghost tour. Call 703-683-3451 or visit nvrpa.org for more information.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carlyle House Hauntings

There are several tales of strange deaths and hauntings in this place. Three men are known to have fallen to their deaths at different times but in a similar manner from an upstairs balcony.

In the basement, a cat was found entombed in a wall by archeologists while renovating the house in the 1970s. It was fully documented, then the mummified cat was returned to the wall, where it still remains. Some say it is an ancient Scottish tradition for good luck. Others say it is to ward off evil spirits. But the spirits of the dead are said to still be heard from time to time in the Carlyle House. This is what the docents at the Carlyle House don’t talk about or deny if asked.

A local paranormal investigations team investigated the Carlyle House in February 2004. They did record some paranormal activity that cannot be fully disregarded, including orb photographs, a sound recording and an inexplicable knock on the door when there was no one around. The lead investigator says, “Therefore it’s my belief that the Carlyle House has something unusual happening either in the house or on the grounds, but it’s a subtle haunting that may make his presence known from time to time but tends to keep to himself unless he’s searched out, and even then he’ll keep to himself after a possible walk down the hall or stroll of the gardens.”

The Christmas Attic – House in the Country is a charming shop on Fairfax Street with an added attraction — the ghost of a young woman is said to visit from time to time.

In the mid-1860s, this building was the home of the Schaeffer family. Young Laura was upstairs in her wedding gown, preparing for her special day. It is speculated that she stepped too close to the fireplace, and the long train of her wedding dress caught fire. The guests were down in the garden, unable to hear her screams. The next day Laura died of her burns. A few weeks later, her fiance committed suicide.

Laura’s ghost is said to visit the shop occasionally. Some people have even reported her presence in the restroom.

While the tale told by the ghost tour guide is embellished, and they freely admit it, there is a kernel of truth in this story. A young woman did live here and died of burns before her wedding. As for the presence of spirits, that I cannot confirm. I guess Laura wasn’t in the mood to receive visitors the day I visited the shop.
Attachments:

The Tale of the Burning Bride Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Tale of the Burning Bride
> http://alexandriadailyphoto.wordpress.com/category
> /haunted/
>
> The Christmas Attic – House in the Country is a
> charming shop on Fairfax Street with an added
> attraction — the ghost of a young woman is said
> to visit from time to time.
>
> In the mid-1860s, this building was the home of
> the Schaeffer family. Young Laura was upstairs in
> her wedding gown, preparing for her special day.
> It is speculated that she stepped too close to the
> fireplace, and the long train of her wedding dress
> caught fire. The guests were down in the garden,
> unable to hear her screams. The next day Laura
> died of her burns. A few weeks later, her fiance
> committed suicide.
>
> Laura’s ghost is said to visit the shop
> occasionally. Some people have even reported her
> presence in the restroom.
>
> While the tale told by the ghost tour guide is
> embellished, and they freely admit it, there is a
> kernel of truth in this story. A young woman did
> live here and died of burns before her wedding. As
> for the presence of spirits, that I cannot
> confirm. I guess Laura wasn’t in the mood to
> receive visitors the day I visited the shop.

chuckhoffmann Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PbFnW Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > All the nurse stories were lifted from
> > allnurses.com. They did not happen in this
> area.
>
> That's the case with a lot of the stories in this
> thread. They were lifted from other Web sites and
> posted here.
archived3archived3archived3archived3archived3

Hello! We just got back here in the US in Oct 2013, and some weird stuff happened inside the house that the base housing got for us. It is inside Langley AFB, and most of the time I spend the day alone since my husband has to work. One time I was preparing lunch, and after I've used the blender and put the glass pitcher on the sink I watched TV for like a few minutes. Then suddenly I just heard this really loud noise. I thought it was fire or something.

I'm familiar with the sound of the alarm when there's too much smoke, so I knew it wasn't it. Finally I found the blender running by itself. So freaky. The blender we have is really hard to turn off or on unless you really push it hard. I just knew I didn't because the last time I did it was before I watched TV. I of course remembered turning it off though it was still plugged in hmmm.

Almost all of the homes on Clay are haunted. Me and my kids moved there almost about 3 years ago. My daughter always talked about an old man by her door. I always thought she was just scared because we just moved in, but almost every other night she kept seeing an old man, but she was the only one who keep seeing the old man. One day I was taking pictures of my kids because it was there first day to school. I just so happened to look at the pictures I took, and I went through my pictures. Sure enough, I saw an old white man in the background. Yes, very spooky, but I never saw or heard anything else about it. My daughter never saw him again.

I remember my neighbors moved in next door. Then maybe a month later she said to me her house was haunted. I never told her what I saw, but she always talked about a lady in her attic. Even though it was ghost, they never harmed us just popped up from time to time. We moved from Clay Street 2 year ago now. I watched a TV show one day called ''A Haunting,'' and surely enough they had my old house and my neighbor's house on the show saying how a spirit of an old male was haunting their home, and it was my old apt. On the show it also had my neighbor's home, but it wasn't the one neighbor that told me about her ghost. It was the other neighbor house, and I always heard screaming from that house scary.

Sleepy Hollow Elementary is haunted by the ghost of a workman who was buried alive back when the school was being constructed back in the Fifties.

When I was a student there, some of the kids there would tell stories about hearing what sounded like labored breathing or gasping or sometimes even a muffled voice from under the ground. A few talked about "The Dirty Man" they'd seen around the school, dressed in old fashioned and extremely dirty work clothing.

My own experience with the dirty man, however, still haunts me to this day. I was walking home from school and I saw the dirty man I'd heard about. Just like I'd heard, he was dressed in old-fashioned clothing and was covered in dirt, like he'd just crawled out of a hole.

He looked lost or confused, but even back then we'd gotten lessons about "Stranger Danger", so I just froze and didn't say anything to him.

Then, it was like a fog lifted, and he gave me a weird, faraway look.

And he spoke to me.

He said, "Sonny? Sonny? Can you help me out, Sonny? It's awful dark down here."

That was all I needed to see or hear. I was jolted out of my fear-induced paralysis and ran all the way home.

I don't know if kids in that neighborhood still talk about "The Dirty Man", but I avoid Sleepy Hollow Road even now, almost forty years later.

Jon222 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I lived right by the back entrance to Hidden Pond
> which is the end of Greeley Boulevard from 1975
> until 1984. That park was the stomping grounds for
> my friends and me day and night. There used to
> even be a dilapidated pier there over by the open
> brick house with the fireplace. During the summers
> we were there almost every day and night. We made
> tree forts, ground forts, and spent many nights
> camping out all over the park/pond avoiding the
> ranger from the parks office/museum. We roamed all
> the trails on our dirt bikes which went all the
> way back past Pohick Creek by the cliffs near
> Orange Hunt even under the Old Keen Mill Road
> Bridge to Rolling Valley Mall. It is safe to say I
> know the place.
>
> In 1975 there was a gravel road which started on
> Rolling Road almost at a 45-degree angle from the
> Rolling Road Mobil Station (the next right turn is
> Rivington Road) called Morris Road. It ended right
> by Hidden Pond Park. This is now called Kenwood
> Avenue. There were two shack-like houses at the
> end, one up the hill on the left which was
> demolished and one intact at the very end of the
> road at the bottom of a steep hill. My friends and
> I used to play around there and hunt for cool old
> stuff and found old photos, knick knacks, cone top
> beer cans, and things. We heard many creepy
> strange sounds coming from that house when it was
> occupied and after it was abandoned. We NEVER saw
> the occupants, only this mean dog whom we would
> run from. I do not know if anyone remembers this
> place but if you do please respond. Older kids
> would be in the woods there partying at night, and
> we would spy on them from afar. Then we noticed
> other people around watching them too. We thought
> they were parents or nosy neighbors, but they were
> all different sizes and seemed too oblivious of
> one another. We never heard a twig or leaf crunch
> as they moved. One night we tried to follow a few
> of them, and they either disappeared into the
> woods or at the edge of the park by the house at
> the end of Morris Road.

There’ve been a lot of ghost stories posted about Hidden Creek park in Springfield. I just saw one a few weeks ago where a guy said that his buddy that committed suicide earlier this year now haunts the area too. Is there anything special about it in local legends?

Here are some pics, as you can see it's pretty secluded...
Attachments:

GHOST SIGHTING ON RT 29 TONIGHT! Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My wife just saw a ghost dressed as a Civil War
> soldier walking along Route 29, tonight at around
> 8pm. She said he was semi-transparent with naval
> blue pants walking away from the the battlefield
> in the direction of the intersection of Rt. 29 and
> Heathcote.

I used to live in an old apartment building off of Liberia. One day when I was coming home from work I was driving down Portner, and I saw a Zouave Civil War soldier sitting on the side of the road with his rifle leaned over his shoulder. It was broad daylight, and I saw him as clear as day. When I looked back in the rear view mirror he wasn't there. Later I was looking up information on the Civil War in Manassas and found out that there had been a whole New York Regiment of Zouave's wiped out in one of the battles and that the hospital/death house had been the Liberia Plantation House which is about a block from my apartment. Portner used to be the old road that led to the house during the Civil War!

Civil War ghost seen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> GHOST SIGHTING ON RT 29 TONIGHT! Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > My wife just saw a ghost dressed as a Civil War
> > soldier walking along Route 29, tonight at
> around
> > 8pm. She said he was semi-transparent with
> naval
> > blue pants walking away from the the
> battlefield
> > in the direction of the intersection of Rt. 29
> and
> > Heathcote.
>
> I used to live in an old apartment building off of
> Liberia. One day when I was coming home from work
> I was driving down Portner, and I saw a Zouave
> Civil War soldier sitting on the side of the road
> with his rifle leaned over his shoulder. It was
> broad daylight, and I saw him as clear as day.
> When I looked back in the rear view mirror he
> wasn't there. Later I was looking up information
> on the Civil War in Manassas and found out that
> there had been a whole New York Regiment of
> Zouave's wiped out in one of the battles and that
> the hospital/death house had been the Liberia
> Plantation House which is about a block from my
> apartment. Portner used to be the old road that
> led to the house during the Civil War!

My brother used to work nights, and saw several civil war soldiers crossing Route 29 at about 1am in the morning on 29. They were ghosts that were semi-transparent. He said that some of the other officers he worked with, would see them from time to time in the dead of night. Has anyone else seen any more civil war ghosts in that area?

Almost all of the homes on Clay are haunted. Me and my kids moved there almost about 3 years ago. My daughter always talked about an old man by her door. I always thought she was just scared because we just moved in, but almost every other night she kept seeing an old man, but she was the only one who keep seeing the old man. One day I was taking pictures of my kids because it was there first day to school. I just so happened to look at the pictures I took, and I went through my pictures. Sure enough, I saw an old white man in the background. Yes, very spooky, but I never saw or heard anything else about it. My daughter never saw him again.

I remember my neighbors moved in next door. Then maybe a month later she said to me her house was haunted. I never told her what I saw, but she always talked about a lady in her attic. Even though it was ghost, they never harmed us just popped up from time to time. We moved from Clay Street 2 year ago now. I watched a TV show one day called ''A Haunting,'' and surely enough they had my old house and my neighbor's house on the show saying how a spirit of an old male was haunting their home, and it was my old apt. On the show it also had my neighbor's home, but it wasn't the one neighbor that told me about her ghost. It was the other neighbor house, and I always heard screaming from that house scary.

Any Civil War ghosts in the area Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Civil War ghost seen Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > GHOST SIGHTING ON RT 29 TONIGHT! Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > My wife just saw a ghost dressed as a Civil
> War
> > > soldier walking along Route 29, tonight at
> > around
> > > 8pm. She said he was semi-transparent with
> > naval
> > > blue pants walking away from the the
> > battlefield
> > > in the direction of the intersection of Rt.
> 29
> > and
> > > Heathcote.
> >
> > I used to live in an old apartment building off
> of
> > Liberia. One day when I was coming home from
> work
> > I was driving down Portner, and I saw a Zouave
> > Civil War soldier sitting on the side of the
> road
> > with his rifle leaned over his shoulder. It was
> > broad daylight, and I saw him as clear as day.
> > When I looked back in the rear view mirror he
> > wasn't there. Later I was looking up
> information
> > on the Civil War in Manassas and found out that
> > there had been a whole New York Regiment of
> > Zouave's wiped out in one of the battles and
> that
> > the hospital/death house had been the Liberia
> > Plantation House which is about a block from my
> > apartment. Portner used to be the old road that
> > led to the house during the Civil War!
>
> My brother used to work nights, and saw several
> civil war soldiers crossing Route 29 at about 1am
> in the morning on 29. They were ghosts that were
> semi-transparent. He said that some of the other
> officers he worked with, would see them from time
> to time in the dead of night. Has anyone else seen
> any more civil war ghosts in that area?

My wife and I were in the battlefield today with our son, at the parking area where the New York Regiment of Zouave's were wiped out, eating our lunch. While sitting in our SUV, I get a scent on the wind of the best smelling pie I have ever smelled. It was only in the air for a second or two, but it was weird. There's nothing back there except for the parking area and the two monuments. It's an odd place back there to be sure.

Hi my name is Amber and this is no joke. I have seen and been very afraid of this ghost. Many things have happened. When I saw this white figure walk through the wall I quietly got out of bed and followed up to the attic. We never went up to the attic. There was no light, so I took a flashlight. When I got there I realized that there was blood on the floor everywhere. I was so freaked out that I ran back to my room. I asked my mom if anyone has been to the attic, and she said no. I went to the attic the next day seeing that there was no blood on the floor, so I walked to another room in the attic and saw three dead birds. One with its wings separated from its body. I also saw a mirror split into two and seven pieces of cloth next to the mirror.

The next thing I thought was that the last time we went to the attic none of those things were there. My mom said that nobody went to the attic after the last time we went. Two days later I saw that there was a piece of paper inside my shoe, so I took it out and read what it said : you have a special power with a drawing of an bow and arrow. I never told anyone about anything that has happened that week. Thirteen days later I kept getting strange messages like: you are special, you are powerful, and pictures of different elements. I finally decided to do my own investigation.

At 1:39 I went to the attic, and I saw that everything was gone. There was nothing there. I felt like I was being watched. So I went back to my room. When I heard that something fall. I saw that it was a picture of me with my electric guitar. When I turned around to pick up the glass this black shadow got up from the floor and turned around and went into the wall. I kept thinking I was seeing things, but it was so close up I didn't know what to think, so I wrote a note saying: why are you after me? I am a normal person!

Then I put it in my shoe. The next day nothing happened it was still there, so I calmed myself and waited. The next day I got an answer: You are special! And you will stay special for you will survive fire! So thankfully my mom was going to change her job, so we moved to Culpeper, and here I am now.

One hundred fifty years after the bloody battle fought there, Gettysburg is a city rich in history and hauntings. Thousands of soldiers gave their lives at Gettysburg, and apparently many of them had some unfinished business because they are still there.

One of the most “felt” ghosts of Gettysburg isn’t a soldier. It’s the ghost of a woman often called Jennie Wade. It’s said that her ghost comforts people who are scared or upset—ironic, right?

Perhaps she still haunts the town because she’s upset that people don’t get her story right, starting with her name. Her real name was Mary Virginia Wade, though she was called “Ginny.”

Ginny was born and raised in Gettysburg, where, at the end of June 1863, Union forces were gathering in anticipation of their next battle. Twenty-year-old Ginny took refuge in a home that turned out to be no refuge at all—the home of Georgia McClellan, who was soon to deliver a baby.

Mary Virginia Wade appears as “Jennie” on the index for a Civil War pension granted her mother. (Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)
Around the same time, soldiers had arrived in the area and needed bread and water. According to her mother’s account, Ginny baked for the soldiers both before and during the battle. On her last morning, Ginny had awoken early to make more bread. While she worked in the kitchen, a bullet traveled through the house, hit her in the back, and killed her instantly. It’s said she was buried with bread dough still on her hands.

Many ghost stories involving Ginny say that she was a midwife delivering a baby during the war. Some say that the baby died, so Ginny’s work was left unfinished. It’s unlikely that Ginny was a midwife by trade. The 1860 census shows that her mother was a tailor, and Ginny presumably helped her with the work. Various historical records also make it clear that Ginny was not helping with the birth of just anyone’s baby, but with her sister’s baby—Ginny’s first nephew. Georgia McClellan was Ginny’s older sister.

And what did become of that child? Did he die, leaving Ginny’s work unfinished? No. The Gettysburg baby, Lewis K. McClellan, lived not only through the turning point of the Civil War but also through World War I and into World War II. He died in February of 1941.

So, what is Ginny’s unfinished business? Not the bread—reports say that her mother finished baking the loaves the next day. If Ginny really does have something to resolve, perhaps it’s that she never married her supposed fiancé, Corporal Johnston Hastings Skelly, who was serving in the 87th Pennsylvania Infantry. If that’s the case, the next person who encounters Ginny’s ghost in Gettysburg might tell her that Johnston died honorably just about a week after she did.
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I have seen a man in my home just outside fort Belvoir in the Inlet Cove neighborhood. We are located south of Fairfax County PkWy off route 1 before Telegraph Road. The ghost wears formal clothing and a top hat and just hangs around.

I have had a door slam on me. No scientific reasoning and took a picture in a mirror. Face of a ghost was beside me in the picture. Later I realized that the face was of the man who had previously lived on the other house on the property. I found pictures of him, and he was buried up on the hill beside my house. I have all colors of the picture. It's crazy accurate.

In South Alexandria on Sherwood Hall Lane. From around 11 pm to 1 am most nights there is a carriage that comes through, going west to east (Very rarely east to west). It travels at about 5 miles an hour. The driver seems intent on driving the team of 4 to 6 horses, and carriage with no interruptions. I have seen it so many times, as well as a lot of friends and family. It has become so regular that we have begun to wave at the driver, and he waves back.

We can see that there are passengers inside, and we could say that they look like George and Martha Washington, but we are not sure because a lot of people wore the same clothes and powdered wigs. We have visited Mount Vernon Plantation, many times, and have seen how George REALLY looked like, so we are almost SURE it may be him. There are no available pictures at this time, but it is a pretty nice experience. I have seen many ghosts in my lifetime and have found that most of them that are aware that they have passed, are friendly if treated respectfully.
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The staff at Pulaski Retirement Community located on Lee Highway reported seeing a ghost sitting at the front entrance around the same time every day. One of the nurses was able to take a picture of the ghost. I don't know if she was waiting for someone or just enjoyed sitting in the lobby to socialize with others while she was living. Either way for some reason she still hangs out. Why in the world someone would hang around anywhere in Pulaski when they could be in heaven or any where else for that matter is beyond me.

On August 27, 1587 Governor John White sailed form Roanoke Island to return to England for supplies. He left behind the first settlement in the new English colony of Virginia, consisting of eighty-nine men, seventeen women, and eleven children. One of those children was his own granddaughter, the first English child to be born in the New World — Virginia Dare. None of these colonists were ever seen again by English eyes.

White had intended to return to the Roanoke colony the next year, but the threat of Spanish invasion with the great Armada of 1588 and the constantly-shifting politics of the Elizabethan court delayed White's return until 1590. When he arrived, he found the colony abandoned, the only clue to the fate of the colonists being the word CROATOAN carved into a tree. This was the name of a nearby island, the home of the english-speaking Croatan Indian Manteo. Manteo and another Croatan, Wanchese, had journeyed to England in 1584, returning with the reconnoissance expedition for the colony. White was unable to make a thorough search of the islands, due to the threat of a large storm and the growing impatience of a captain eager to turn south and hunt for Spanish treasure ships. By the time of the next attempt at Colonization in 1608 at Jamestown, the fate of the Lost Colonists had already become the stuff of legend.

One of these legends that has been told time and again on the North Carolina Outer Banks follows the sad, strange fate of that first English child born on New World soil.

According to the legend, Wanchese was fearful of the threat posed by the Englishmen and plotted with a nearby tribe to lead a sneak attack against the colonists. Fleeing for their lives, the colonists were gathered together by Manteo to escape and join his tribe. It was Elanor Dare, the mother of Virginia, who had the foresight to carve their destination in a tree, with her husband dead of an indian arrow at her feet and her precious child clutched into her arms.

But a good number of the colonists did escape, and they lived peacefully with the Croatan Indians. Young Virginia Dare grew to be a beautiful maiden, whose natural grace and virtue made her and example to all who knew her, colonists and Indians alike. As she became a young woman, she naturally attracted the attentions of suitors. Among these young men were the noble Okisko, and a jealous sorcerer named Chico.

Chico was the first to offer his hand to the young Virginia Dare, but the maiden refused his advanced. Enraged, he used his dark arts to curse the girl, and transformed her body into that of a snow-white deer.

The mysterious white doe was often seen on Roanoke, sadly walking through the now-overgrown and decaying houses built by her people. The story of this beautiful, elusive creature soon spread to all the tribes on the islands.

Now, Okisko, Virginia Dare's other suitor, figured that this white doe had shown up about the same time Virginia Dare had gone missing. Reckoning that his rival in love was a pretty hand at the dark arts, it didn't take him long to figure out that this white doe was his own beloved. Seeking the help of a friendly sorcerer, he learned how to make a magic arrowhead from the mother-of-pearl lining of an oyster shell that would undo the curse.

But Wanchese had also heard of the white doe, and in a bid to prove his worth as a warrior he vowed to kill the rare creature. To this end, he pledged to use a silver arrowhead given to him by Queen Elizabeth when he had been in England.

Okisko and Wanchese, unknown to one another, both tracked the white doe for weeks — one pledged to return her to her true form, the other sworn to bring her death. And as it happened, they came upon the deer at the same hour of the same day, as she was drinking from a still, deep pool in the forest. Okisko saw his beloved, Wanchese saw his prey, and at the same time they both released their arrows. At the same time, both their arrows hit the heart of the white deer, Okisko's undoing the enchantment and Wanchese's bringing death.

Seeing what he had done, Wanchese fled the island in fear, but Okisko sadly carried the body of his beloved to the old fort built by the colonists and buried her at its center.

But soon by that pool where Virginia Dare died, a new vine sprung up, whose grapes were sweeter than any tasted before but whose juice was a red as blood. This was the scuppernong, the grape from which the first North Carolina wines were made.

While the exact fate of the Lost Colony is unknown, most historians agree that the chances of Virginia Dare having been transformed into a deer are vanishingly small. But the legend of Virginia Dare does represent a unique combination of a literary tradition that was imported to the New World from England, along with some uniquely American advertising showmanship.

The legend 0f Virginia Dare becoming a deer seems to have been first told in the late 19th Century. The earliest versions of the story, such as the one recorded in an 1880 travel article in the New York Times leave out the grapes and even the Indians entirely. In these versions, Virginia Dare in deer form has a remarkably long lifespan, and is eventually brought down by a silver bullet shot form a Virginia hunter's rifle.

But these first versions of the story are already drawing from an established literary tradition. The White deer is a common motif in English literary legends and is often used as a symbol of Christian virtue. A similar story of a young girl transformed into a white deer can be found in Yorkshire, where it formed the basis for Wordsworth's poem The White Deer of Rylstone.

The most famous version of the Virginia Dare story is certainly aware of this tradition. This is the version of the story whose summary you've just read, and which comes from Sallie Southall Cotten's 1901 book-length poem The White Doe, or the Fate of Virginia Dare.

Sallie Southall Cotten was a remarkable woman, a strong promoter of women's rights and a leader in the women's club movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An organizer of the North Carolina exhibition at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, it was she who commissioned the beautifully carved Virginia Dare desk that illustrates scenes from the legend and is now on display at the Lost Colony Museum in Roanoke Festival Park.

Ms. Cotten was also an early advocate of North Carolina's wine industry, and the addition of the scuppernong grapes colored by Virginia Dare's blood seems to be her unique contribution to the legend. This addition to the legend may also have something to do with the fact that copies of The White Doe were given away as promotions by Garrett & Company, manufacturers of Virginia Dare wines.

Garret's line of scuppernong wines were among the most popular blends of wine in America in the early part of the 20th Century. Before prohibition, North Carolina was one of the leading states in wine manufacture in the country, an industry that is now only slowly creeping back to being an important one in the state. Distributing Cotten's book was only part of an innovative and aggressive marketing campaign by Garret & Co. Virginia Dare wines were the first wines advertised on radio, with the once-famous tag line "Say it again — Virgina Dare."

Virginia Dare wines were also the first American made wines commercially available at the end of prohibition, but the company never regained its former glory. However, bottles of Virginia Dare wine from the late 1940s are a much sought-after item by collectors, due to unverified rumors that the model posing for the portrait of Virginia Dare on the label was a young Marilyn Monroe.

The literary value of Cotten's poem is not of itself remarkable, but it does hold up well when considered against other book-length poetical advertisements of cheap wine.

Perhaps because her fate is known only to the imagination, Virginia Dare herself is something of a cultural signifier. For most of the early years of the republic, the story of the Lost Colony was overshadowed by stories of Plymouth Plantation, but the story of a white child growing up in primordial splendor among friendly Indians seemed to suit the Romantic sensibility of the later 19th century. So the icon of the blonde-haired Virginia Dare and her tragically beautiful death was born.

Lately, Virginia Dare has been taken up again as a symbol, this time unfortunately by an appallingly racist anti-immigration group, on whom the irony of using the first immigrant child to be born on American soil as a symbol of a closed-border policy seems to be lost.
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For over a century, mysterious lights were seen bobbing up and down along the railroad tracks near Maco Station, a few miles west of Wilmington. When anyone approached the lights, they would disappear. The lights were observed many times over many years, and even photographed on occasion. It's even said that President Grover Cleveland saw the lights while on whistle stop tour in 1889. The source of these lights has never been determined, but according to legend the light is the ghost of a railroad worker who died on the tracks one night in 1867.

On that tragic night in 1867, a train was rolling along the tracks and the signalman, Joe Baldwin, was sleeping in the caboose. Joe's slumber was broken by a violent jerk. A veteran railroad worker, Joe Baldwin recognized the motion and immediately knew that the caboose had become detached from the rest of the train.

Joe Baldwin's heart started racing. He knew that his one car was now stuck on the tracks, and that the main part of the train was rapidly moving away from him and he had no way of contacting it. Joe also knew that his wasn't the only train scheduled for those tracks that night. A passenger train was due along soon, and if the oncoming train struck the stalled caboose there would be a horrible accident.

Joe Baldwin had a choice to make. He knew that he had to signal the oncoming train to stop. He knew that the only way to do this and be sure the engineer in the approaching train would see the signal was to stand on the platform at the back of the caboose.

Joe Baldwin also knew that it takes a long time to stop a speeding train. Even if the engineer saw the light and stopped, there might be time to slow down enough to prevent a complete disaster, but the chances were good that the caboose was still about to be hit. And Joe Baldwin that if that happened, he didn't stand much of a chance of walking away from that crash.

Baldwin made the heroic choice. Grabbing his lantern, Joe Baldwin stood on the back of the caboose as the sound of an oncoming passenger train rumbled closer. Joe frantically waved his warning light, trying desperately to catch the attention f the engineer.

Joe's plan worked. The engineer of the oncoming train saw the light and pulled hard on his brakes. But the momentum of the tons of speeding steel kept the train moving, and the locomotive slammed into Joe's caboose. Joe's signals had worked. His bravery had prevented a more serious collision. But brave Joe Baldwin was decapitated in the crash.

Joe's head was thrown by the force of the accident into the murky swamps that surrounded the tracks. It was never found. His headless body was buried with hero's honors a week later.

Ever since that night, lights have been seen moving up and down the track around Maco. Sometimes it's only one light, sometimes it's two. People says that it's the ghost of Joe Baldwin, still searching for his missing head.

A Note About the Story

The Maco light was seen for over 100 years, but has not been seen since 1977. This was the year that the railroad tracks at Maco station were pulled up. Maco stands on top of a geological fault line. Some have speculated that the source of the lights was static electricity produced by the pressures of this fault building up along the tracks.

Okay,this is my grandparents story. When I was a little boy, I use to be fascinated with family stories of my grandparents haunted dream house. My Grandparents bought an old house in a Hispanic community in a small town located southeast of Houston. It was a house that anyone would dream of having and my grandparents adored the home and the neighborhood that it sat on, but there was something very unreal about the two. It was haunted!

According to the stories, the house was haunted by a faceless woman in white. She had a long white dress and a veil covering her ghostly face. She was usually the prankster of the house, such as turning light switches off and on, throwing rocks at the neighborhood children, and lifting up blankets during the night when my grandparents were sleeping.

She was also known to sit in the kitchen tearing up paper during the late hours of the night and setting fires outside by a tree where she normally appears.

She wasn't the only one that was doing all the hauntings. At night she was accompanied by a man in a black suit wearing a top hat. He was always seen at night standing by the mail box with flaring red glowing eyes.

My mother use to see him in the middle of the night standing outside by the road staring into the house.

One night, my grandfather confronted the lady ghost and decided to follow her into the night as she was walking out the back door to the tree that she vanishes into. As he got to the tree, he had the shivers and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

One day my grandparents couldn't take it anymore and decided to move out for good.

To this day, the lady in white is seen walking the neighborhood supposedly looking for someone who can guide her into the other side, weeping.

As for the man in black, he is usually seen at night by the mail box looking into the house that is now owned by another couple.

According to neighbors, they see his shadow roaming the neighborhood and the woman ringing doorbells in the middle of the night and then vanishes

The neighbors across the street from the house took a photo of the man in black but mysteriously, you can only see from the neck down like the head just erased from the photo

Located in Marion County, the small community of Mannington hosts one of WV's most popular urban legends: The Witch's Grave at Highland Cemetery.

Highland Cemetery and its chapel sit off a rural road deep in Marion County. Abandoned for years, the chapel itself has its own legends. Locals tell of a Satanic cult that used the chapel for worship. Visitors and thrill seekers to the chapel noted a stark absence of crosses and Christian iconography throughout the chapel, in addition to a sense of creepiness and unease. An attendance bulletin board is rumored to read the same number as the number of people in the visiting party, changed with each new group by unseen, and possibly, unhuman hands.

Perhaps the abandoned chapel became a hub of alleged Satanic activity due to a much older urban legend surrounding one of the interred citizens of the cemetery. Highland Cemetery is reported to be the final resting spot of Fairmont's most famous witch.

The lady in question goes by many variations of name. Zelda, Sarah Jane, Serlinda Jane, and simply, the Witch of Highland, are among the many variations. Her tombstone, however, reads something to the affect of Serilda Jane Whetzel, date of death: May 29th, 1909.

Legend states that Ms. Whetzel's tombstone is upside down, and contains the imagery of a staircase descending down into the fiery mouth of a demon. Although buried in what was a Christian burial ground, Ms. Whetzel had her tombstone faced away from the rest of the flock in obvious defiance. The witch herself, along with a gentleman, often referred to as a warlock, have been seen in the vicinty of the grave, and quickly disappear when approached.

Although seemingly unbelievable, there is a grain of truth in these stories. The tombstone itself IS quite strange. Firstly, it DOES face away from the rest of the stones in the cemetery. However, it is obvious that the tombstone has been knocked down, and replaced in a new position. According to locals, any attempt to restore the stone to its original position is met with opposition from local vandals, quick to undo the work.

Secondly, there is a staircase motif carved on Ms. Whetzel's tomb. Generally, staircases in tombstone symbolism represent the passage into Heaven. These are often accompanied by weeping willow trees in the background, symbolizing mourning. Due to stone weathering and a slightly off-kilter perspective, it DOES give the illusion that the staircase is not ascending into Heaven, but DESCENDING into something not as pleasant! Today, services are once again being held in the small chapel, so please be respectful and obey all laws if visiting the cemetery.

Given his oft-mythologized life, it is perhaps not surprising that George Washington has been the subject of numerous ghost stories. And given its history as a cultural and historical landmark, it is little surprise that many of these stories occurred at Mount Vernon.

Ghost tales and haunting stories have popped up throughout the site’s history, even to the present day. In the late nineteenth century--an age where spiritualism gained favor and notoriety--ghost stories involving Washington cropped up repeatedly in the popular press and lore. One such story was written by prominent Boston politician, Josiah Quincy, Jr., reminiscing about his father’s visit to Mount Vernon.

The son and grandson of two former Boston mayors, prominent abolitionist Josiah Quincy, Jr., also served as the city’s mayor from 1845 through 1849. In 1883, a book based on Quincy’s collection of journals, diaries, letters and remembrances, entitled Figures of the Past from the Leaves of Old Journals, was published posthumously. Included within the work were Quincy’s remembrances of his father.

Quincy’s father, Josiah Quincy III, was a prominent Massachusetts politician in his own right, even more renowned than his son, serving in the U.S. House of Representative (1805-1813), as Mayor of Boston (1823-1828), and President of Harvard (1829-1845). While serving in Congress, Quincy visited Mount Vernon to meet with Bushrod Washington, George Washington’s nephew, the inheritor of Mount Vernon, and a Supreme Court Justice. The story, however, as relayed by Quincy, Jr., contained a distinctly spooky element.

In the spring of 1806, the story recounts, Quincy arrived at Mount Vernon to speak with Bushrod Washington, intent on staying the night as a guest. In Figures of the Past’s narrative, Quincy, Jr., explained that while he was in Washington, D.C. at the time, he was too young to remember the actual event. While the accuracy of much of Quincy, Jr.’s book should be doubted, this particular story was one that he claimed was ingrained within his memory because it was “constantly referred to in the family circle.” What was this story that was important enough to have been such a frequent topic of family conversation? The tale was “my father’s only ghost story.”

Upon Quincy III’s arrival at Mount Vernon, Bushrod Washington assigned his guest to the Washington’s bedchamber, “the chamber in which his uncle had died.” For dramatic effect, Quincy, Jr. explained that “Judge Washington. . .as he withdrew,” mentioned “the rumor that an interview with Washington had been granted to some of its [the Washington bedchamber] former occupants.” Upon hearing the news from Bushrod, Quincy’s father “pondered upon the possibility that he might be found worthy to behold the glorified spirit of him who was so revered by his countrymen.” It seems that even George Washington’s ghost was revered by Americans.

The warning proved to be prophetic, according to Quincy, Jr., explaining that “during the night” his father “did see Washington.” However, Quincy, Jr., qualifies that “this is all I have to say about it” because if he gave more details, he would have to consult an “expert in cerebral illusions.” Despite the younger Quincy’s hesitation to give more details, he assured readers that his father’s “assurance in this matter was perfect,” and that his father “believed that brain action. . .was at times set up in us by friends no longer in the flesh, and that his own life had been guided by these mysterious influences.”

Even though Quincy, Jr. claimed to not want to relay more of this incident, his writing seems to indicate otherwise. With little transition the narrative continued by telling of Bushrod Washington allowing Josiah Quincy III to enter Washington’s tomb, “a custom connected with the hospitalities of Mt. Vernon in Judge Washington’s time,” and an act that “would be scarcely possible among persons of refinement at the present day.” Quincy hints at a possible cause for George Washington’s ghost to be lingering at Mount Vernon, explaining that the “velvet cover of the coffin was hanging in tatters, it having been brought to this condition by the assaults of relic-hunters.” Quincy concluded by quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson’s aphorism, “‘Care not to strip the dead of his sad ornament,’” because “of all fetiches [sic], with which the imagination contrives to associate the august spirits of the great,” Quincy claimed, “such miserable shreds and patches are the most vulgar.”

Wise advice. So next time anyone feels compelled to touch objects in the Mount Vernon mansion or museum, perhaps think to Josiah Quincy III and the awful fright he had at Mount Vernon, caused by the callousness of those touching Washington’s belongings. Because you, too, can be haunted by the spirit of Washington. And while his living being may have been “first in peace,” who knows just what George Washington’s ghost has in mind for those bold enough to disturb his belongings.

"Josiah Quincy," oil on canvas, by the American Gilbert Stuart (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
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On a number of occasions, the ghost of George Washington is seen galloping across the battlefields of Gettysburg. Residents in the area say that his ghostly figure often appears on hot summer nights riding a beautiful white horse.

Perhaps the most well known sighting of the former first President was during the Civil War. A large number of Union soldiers were attempting to hold back the Confederates from taking over a strategic area when Washington materialized before them on a white horse. Dressed in uniform from the period of the American Revolution, Washington shouted "Fix bayonets! Charge!" The Union soldiers did just that and were able to achieve a full retreat from the Confederates.

George Washington's Ghost Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ghost Of George Washington
> http://terrifyingtales.blogspot.com/2007/02/ghost-
> of-george-washington.html
>
> On a number of occasions, the ghost of George
> Washington is seen galloping across the
> battlefields of Gettysburg. Residents in the area
> say that his ghostly figure often appears on hot
> summer nights riding a beautiful white horse.
>
> Perhaps the most well known sighting of the former
> first President was during the Civil War. A large
> number of Union soldiers were attempting to hold
> back the Confederates from taking over a strategic
> area when Washington materialized before them on a
> white horse. Dressed in uniform from the period of
> the American Revolution, Washington shouted "Fix
> bayonets! Charge!" The Union soldiers did just
> that and were able to achieve a full retreat from
> the Confederates.
>
> Source: The Travel Channel

Colonel Chamberlain, hero of Gettysburg (successfully defended the Little Round Top from the Confederate offensive, thereby saving the Union left from being turned), was a man of sober character before, during, and following the Civil War, and confirmed this version of the sighting:

As Chamberlain and his regiment groped through the unfamiliar territory, struggling to find their ordered position, a figure on a white horse, and wearing a tricorn hat appeared; and guided the regiment to their critical position on Little Round Top. It was only after the battle the men who had seen the mysterious guide, decided that the figure bore an uncanny resemblance to the first President.

On a related side note; Washington's relative by marriage, the renowned General Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate forces, lost this crucial battle.

Unidentified sounds disturb the silence of night. The curtains begin to sway as a cold draft breezes across the room. Could it be the work of a spirit from another world? George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and some of the most recognizable figures of American history may have returned to some of their former haunts. Find out where to encounter the presence of a character from America's past ... and we're not talking history books here.

Benjamin Franklin
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Benjamin Franklin was instrumental in laying the foundation of government for the fledgling United States. He also has a long list of contributions from his work as a writer, scientist, inventor, printer, philosopher, statesman and economist. Although he was born in Boston, much of his legacy is rooted in Philadelphia, where Franklin is buried alongside his wife, Deborah. It is in Philadelphia that his spirit has been known to put in an appearance from time to time. In 1884 a cleaning woman was knocked over by a ghostly figure rushing towards a bookshelf in the Philosophical Society's library. Her description matched that of Franklin. There are also reports of people who spied the philosophical Society's statue of Franklin dancing along city streets.

Famous American Act: United States Founding Father

Haunting Method: Statue in front of the American Philosophical Society comes to life and dances in the street.

Robert E. Lee
Alexandria, Virginia

Robert E. Lee, the son of a Revolutionary War hero, attended the United States Military Academy where he graduated second in his class. He was offered the command of the Union Army but declined in order to align himself with the Confederacy. He led a number of successful battles in the Civil War before his surrender at the Appomattox Court House in April of 1865. Perhaps due to the bloodshed he witnessed in America's divisive war, Lee's ghost has regressed back to his less complicated childhood years. A 4-year-old Lee has been seen playing in the yard of his childhood home in Alexandria, VA. The ghost is also the suspected culprit in several pranks, like a ringing doorbell and the rearranging of household objects while giggles echo through the hall. The boy is sometimes accompanied by a phantom black dog and two ghostly girls who may be his sisters. Her description matched that of Franklin. There are also reports of people who spied the Philosophical Society's statue of Franklin dancing along city streets.

An officer who served with distinction in the Confederate army, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard ordered the first shots at Fort Sumter and led his troops into the bloody battle of Shiloh where 23,000 men from both sides were killed. Some believe that the General and some of the fallen troops of Shiloh still roam the halls of his home, Beauregard House, in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Visitors have reported seeing unearthly soldiers in battle stabbing each other with bayonets amidst the wounded with the sounds of cannon and rifle fire in the background. Beauregard seems doomed to constantly relive the horrible battle, as his ghost is said to appear from time to time in uniform, sadly whispering "Shiloh & Shiloh."

With romantic lighting and soft piano music as a backdrop, One If By Land, Two If By Sea restaurant is the setting for almost daily marriage proposals. But diners in the mood for love sometimes have to contend with the angry spirit of Aaron Burr, who is said to send dishes crashing and chairs moving from under dining patrons. The famous politician served as vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805 after losing his bid for the presidency when Alexander Hamilton threw his support to Thomas Jefferson. In 1804 Burr mortally wounded enemy Hamilton in a duel fought in New Jersey. Burr is not the only unhappy soul from that conflict; the spirit of Hamilton has been seen haunting the area surrounding his tomb at Trinity Church in New York.

Famous American Act: Vice president of the US, but primarily known for killing Alexander Hamilton in duel.

Haunting Method: Burr smashes dishes and moves chairs at his carriage house, which is now a restaurant.

George Washington
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

The ghost of American president and Founding Father George Washington came to the rescue of a group of Union soldiers waging a battle against Confederate troops outside Gettysburg, PA, during the Civil War. The men were fighting to hold southern troops back from a strategic hill, Little Round Top, when a figure materialized before them, an officer on a shining white stallion with his upraised sword aflame. Dressed in the uniform of the American Revolution, the man was Washington, who then issued the command, "Fix bayonets! Charge!" The Union soldiers charged down the hill, forced the the Confederates into a full retreat and the Northern states were never invaded again. Current Gettysburg residents say that sometimes on hot summer nights they still see a ghostly rider on a splendid white steed galloping across the battlefield.

Former mistress Betsy Ross is said to haunt her house where she sewed the first American flag. Ross, who is buried on the premises, has been seen weeping while sitting on her bed. In addition to the ghostly Mrs. Ross, the basement is often disturbed by mysterious whisperings that may belong to the displaced spirit of Charles H. Weisberger, the founder of the Ross Memorial. Others attribute the secondary haunting to the tortured soul of a gift shop employee who was murdered during a robbery years ago.

Famous American Act: Credited with sewing the first American flag

Haunting Method: Ross cries at the foot of her bed in her former house.

Abraham Lincoln
Washington, DC

Abraham Lincoln's life may have ended prematurely when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, but his presence lives on at the White House. Famous later occupants, including President Theodore Roosevelt and First Lady Grace Coolidge, reported seeing a tall, gaunt figure in several rooms of the residence. From time to time, people walking by on the street have reported seeing a shadow of Lincoln's dimensions in the window of the Oval Office where the president often stood gazing at the Potomac River during the days of the Civil War. And Lincoln is not the only presidential haunting in the White House. Mary Todd Lincoln said she heard a man with the unmistakable voice of Andrew Jackson stomping and swearing in the Rose Room.

Famous American Act: President of United States

Haunting Method: Lincoln's tall figure has been seen roaming the halls of the White House.

ghost pics Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello, Well my husband and I drove to the Manassas
> Battlefield to check it out last week. I took a
> bunch of photos because it was impressive, and for
> the hope to maybe catch something on film. I came
> home, looked at the pictures and at first glance
> nothing caught my eye. But this evening upon
> looking for the third time I saw something. We
> looked inside the Henry house that still stands
> there. It was locked so we just looked in the
> windows and took pictures from the outside. Look
> at the bottom two windows carefully. On the left,
> the lower middle pane you can see the faint image
> of a face, two eyes and nose defined. On the
> right, second pane from the bottom left you can
> see a face also. It almost appears to be a female
> face smiling.
>
> AND COULD THIS BE A REAL GHOSTS FACE PEERING OUT
> ALSO? THIRD WINDOW PANE DOWN ABOVE THE BOYS HEAD?
> MANY OF OUR VISITORS THINK SO!
>
> According to
> http://womenshistory.about.com/library/pic/bl_p_ju
> dith_henry_house.htm: "Judith Carter Henry, 84 or
> 85 years old and bedridden, refused to leave her
> upstairs bedroom as the First Battle of Bull Run
> was fought on the hill surrounding her home.
> Snipers used the house; Judith Henry was killed by
> a bullet meant for the snipers. She was the first
> civilian killed at First Bull Run, July 21, 1861."
> And according to further reading there was also a
> Union soldier killed inside the house.

Confederate snipers used the house; Judith Henry was killed by a Union bullet meant for the snipers. She was the first civilian killed at First Bull Run, July 21, 1861. The Second Battle of Bull Run was also fought on this hill. (These battles are also sometimes called the First and Second Battles of Manassas.)
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a youtube by "VAGhosts" of the cold harbor battlefield shows it being so haunted by the 20,000 plus violent deaths there that a gray miasma boils up out of the battlefield park area around midnight that looks period freaky if anyone is interested

Judith Henry's House Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ghost pics Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Hello, Well my husband and I drove to the
> Manassas
> > Battlefield to check it out last week. I took a
> > bunch of photos because it was impressive, and
> for
> > the hope to maybe catch something on film. I
> came
> > home, looked at the pic tures and at first
> glance
> > nothing caught my eye. But this evening upon
> > looking for the third time I saw something. We
> > looked inside the Henry house that still stands
> > there. It was locked so we just looked in the
> > windows and took pictures from the outside.
> Look
> > at the bottom two windows carefully. On the
> left,
> > the lower middle pane you can see the faint
> image
> > of a face, two eyes and nose defined. On the
> > right, second pane from the bottom left you can
> > see a face also. It almost appears to be a
> female
> > face smiling.
> >
> > AND COULD THIS BE A REAL GHOSTS FACE PEERING
> OUT
> > ALSO? THIRD WINDOW PANE DOWN ABOVE THE BOYS
> HEAD?
> > MANY OF OUR VISITORS THINK SO!
> >
> > According to
> >
> http://womenshistory.about.com/library/pic/bl_p_ju
>
> > dith_henry_house.htm: "Judith Carter Henry, 84
> or
> > 85 years old and bedridden, refused to leave
> her
> > upstairs bedroom as the First Battle of Bull
> Run
> > was fought on the hill surrounding her home.
> > Snipers used the house; Judith Henry was killed
> by
> > a bullet meant for the snipers. She was the
> first
> > civilian killed at First Bull Run, July 21,
> 1861."
> > And according to further reading there was also
> a
> > Union soldier killed inside the house.
>
>
> Judith Henry's House in Ruins
> After the Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861
> http://womenshistory.about.com/od/essentials/ig/Wo
> rdless-Wednesday/Judith-Henry-House.htm
>
> Confederate snipers used the house; Judith Henry
> was killed by a Union bullet meant for the
> snipers. She was the first civilian killed at
> First Bull Run, July 21, 1861. The Second Battle
> of Bull Run was also fought on this hill. (These
> battles are also sometimes called the First and
> Second Battles of Manassas.)

Hi just my two cents, Judith Henry was actually killed by union artillery intended for those rebel snipers, she was hit by shell fragments and died that night. The house was ruined by the surrounding combat and her remaining family left till after the war. The current house was built in the 1870s. I've not seen Mrs Henry but have seen some other odd things on the battle fields and I've worked there for several years.

CSA11B Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Hi just my two cents, Judith Henry was actually
> killed by union artillery intended for those rebel
> snipers, she was hit by shell fragments and died
> that night. The house was ruined by the
> surrounding combat and her remaining family left
> till after the war. The current house was built in
> the 1870s. I've not seen Mrs Henry but have seen
> some other odd things on the battle fields and
> I've worked there for several years.

Good to know, what else have you seen there? Seems like there would be tons of ghost stories around that place. I smelled pie over there where the New York regiment was wiped out (in that parking area) about a month or two ago.

A Haunting in Haymarket Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A Haunting in Haymarket Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I lived in Fairfax County for much of my life,
> and
> > recently moved out to Haymarket about 2 years
> ago.
> > We rent a house out in Piedmont and I think its
> > haunted. Some of our roomates say they have
> seen
> > or heard spirits moving around downstairs
> during
> > the day when no else in home. The owner has a
> > satellite clock that automatically corrects
> it’s
> > time when syncing up to the satellite in orbit.
> > This one is very odd, because once and a while,
> it
> > will be waaaaay off by about 8 to 10 hours.
> It’s
> > pretty creepy to see the arms of the clock
> moving
> > quickly to correct itself. I myself have dreams
> > about a witch in our closet, coming out and
> saying
> > scary or odd things to me. All in all though
> not
> > much has happened since we’ve been there,
> that
> > is until last night.
> >
> > We have a young son that is 18 months old, last
> > night he was playing with the roomates
> downstairs
> > in the large family room we have. The napkin
> > holder in the kitchen jumped off the kitchen
> table
> > and landed on the floor next to my son. (See
> the
> > attached picture below). As you can see it’s
> of
> > pretty solid weight and is flat, so it
> wouldn’t
> > tip over. The only other thing is that one of
> the
> > teenagers that lives with us, says that she
> feels
> > like a creepy presence has started to follow
> her.
> > She said that she was in Walmart one day and he
> > felt the presence there in the store standing
> > right next to her (too close). We take pictures
> > all the time in the house and nothing unusual
> has
> > showed up on them. However, there does seem to
> be
> > some negativity in air (some of the roomates
> > lately in the past 6-8 months) haven’t been
> > getting along and get into yelling matches
> usually
> > over nothing.
> >
> > The owner is an Asian man, and the reason I say
> > that is, the house has several “Feng Shui
> > deflectors” on it (see picture below). I
> looked
> > them up and A “Feng Shui deflector” contains
> a
> > small Bagua mirror in it’s center. The Bagua
> > mirror protects and adjusts negative Chi
> directed
> > at the house from outside forces and repel evil
> > spirits and people with bad intentions towards
> > you. There are at least 4 to 5 of them on the
> > house that I have seen all on the outside
> > (according to tradition it’s very bad to hang
> > them up inside). I’ve asked him if the house
> is
> > haunted and he didn’t come out and say yes,
> nor
> > did he say no. He did admit that there were
> some
> > small occurances that he couldn’t easily
> > explain, but they were very few and far
> between.
> > He raised a family in the house and later he
> and
> > his wife moved to Maryland.
>
> So tonight, while my son was downstairs playing
> with the other kids, I saw the ghost that lives in
> our house. My wife and I were in our bedroom
> watching her chick flick shows. I was a little
> bored and was just staring out our door which
> faces the bathroom door which was open. I saw what
> appeared to be a short old woman (possibly Asian)
> with short, curly black hair. I think she was
> rushing out of the bathroom to watch the kids
> downstairs playing and didn't realize my wife and
> I were still in our bedroom. From the upstairs the
> area is open so you can look down and see the
> foyer on one side and the large family room from
> the other side. The ghost seemed surprised to see
> me looking at her, and moved away from our door at
> a high rate of speed. My wife and I weren't scared
> at all, and in fact it seemed cute and hilarious.
>
>
> About an hour after it happened, I saw an orange
> light (similar to those crappy flashlights from
> the 70's that were very weak powered) come on in
> the bathroom (reflected off the mirror facing the
> tube) and then go off right afterwards. There was
> no one in the bathroom.
>
> In the past few months, the feeling of negativity
> has gone down some, but is still here. When I saw
> the ghost, I didn't get a negative or scary
> feeling. It was more like watching an old Asian
> lady running late to Bingo. LOL. Any insights from
> anybody on this?

Still having sightings in the house.

One night, the lights in our closet went on, then off, and then on again like someone was casually flicking the light switch. It was a bit scary since our 2 year old son was sitting on the bed not far away from the closet at the time.

Last week, I was cleaing the mirror in the bathroom. While I was doing that, I saw a shadow walk in front of the door behind me (saw it in the mirror). The funny thing is the shadow came out of the hall closet where the towels are. The closet above (with the lights going on and off) that I mentioned above in the bedroom is right behind that particular
hall closet. (see diagram).

The good news is, that we're planning on moving this year so we can leave this craziness behind.
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My boyfriend and I recently went for a walk on the Bloody Angle Trail in Spotsylvania. I took a bunch of pictures, and in one I noticed something strange. To me it looks like a man in a white short and dark pants sitting down, but who really knows!?!
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?????? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Has anyone heard anymore about the hauntings over
> by Hidden Pond in Springfield?

I don't know if you can call this a haunting, but there was one night that scared me quite bad while trying to walk through Hidden Pond at night.

I grew up in a house where in the fall and winter you could observe Hidden Pond. During my high school days I use to sneak out all the time. Up until this night I had never seen anything weird take place in Hidden Pond, and I had only heard stories up until this point, however I always chose not to go through hidden pond at night.

One late night, say approximately 4am I was walking home south from the direction of the Rolling Road/Old Keen Mill intersection, and usually would take the long way to my house by walking down Rivington Rd to eventually end up on Holford Lane. I believe this night a couple friends and I were hanging out at a friends house off of Greeley Rd/Old Keene Mill side of Hidden Pond. so if you look at a map you'll see that cutting through Hidden Pond is much faster.

As I had been walking and passing the 7-11, well I guess this evening I mustered up the courage to take the paved path that lies on the outskirts of Hidden Pond where one end of the trailhead starts between two houses at the end of the Kenwood Oaks Ave/Park View Ct. I specifically remember that I would tell myself there is nothing to be afraid of as I was transitioning from the neighborhood sidewalk to the trailhead.

The beginning of the trailhead first leads with a set up of elongated steps that gradually drops down pretty steep (Its been awhile but I can only estimate that it is a 25-30ft drop by the time you are actually surrounded by forest). From the top of the steps I have a pretty good vantage point of what lies below.

I begin my descent and about half way down, I look down approx. 15 feet off to the right of the trail. I absolutely freeze. What I see next I can't believe is happening. Not at this time of night and the coincidence was just too great for this to occur while I happen to be here and about to descend into a dark path. I see someone walking through the heavy vegetation and trees and they are headed directly for the flat part of the trail! The creepy part was that I remember they were not even using their hands to push away branches, they were walking straight through it.

Without another chance to even formulate another thought I had made the fastest 180 turn and I ran as fast as I could all the way back to Rolling Road. It didn't help that the whole time I was running I pictured who ever I saw in the forest chasing me down, but that never happened.

Now the scary part that played with my head is my route back home because the top of Holford is a couple of yards away from the other end of that Hidden Pond Trail of where I should of exited, and I was just hoping that I would not see anything at all, and even worse since I had snuck out I did not use the front door, I had to go around to the back of my house that backs up to the forest.

So that's my Hidden Pond story. That's definitely one of my top 5 scariest moments I have experienced. I actually came here to find if anybody has encountered something I saw in Arlington one night. I saw your post and had to share...that Arlington story I'll write later.

RV Native Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ?????? Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Has anyone heard anymore about the hauntings
> over
> > by Hidden Pond in Springfield?
>
> I don't know if you can call this a haunting, but
> there was one night that scared me quite bad while
> trying to walk through Hidden Pond at night.
>
> I grew up in a house where in the fall and winter
> you could observe Hidden Pond. During my high
> school days I use to sneak out all the time. Up
> until this night I had never seen anything weird
> take place in Hidden Pond, and I had only heard
> stories up until this point, however I always
> chose not to go through hidden pond at night.
>
> One late night, say approximately 4am I was
> walking home south from the direction of the
> Rolling Road/Old Keen Mill intersection, and
> usually would take the long way to my house by
> walking down Rivington Rd to eventually end up on
> Holford Lane. I believe this night a couple
> friends and I were hanging out at a friends house
> off of Greeley Rd/Old Keene Mill side of Hidden
> Pond. so if you look at a map you'll see that
> cutting through Hidden Pond is much faster.
>
> As I had been walking and passing the 7-11, well I
> guess this evening I mustered up the courage to
> take the paved path that lies on the outskirts of
> Hidden Pond where one end of the trailhead starts
> between two houses at the end of the Kenwood Oaks
> Ave/Park View Ct. I specifically remember that I
> would tell myself there is nothing to be afraid of
> as I was transitioning from the neighborhood
> sidewalk to the trailhead.
>
> The beginning of the trailhead first leads with a
> set up of elongated steps that gradually drops
> down pretty steep (Its been awhile but I can only
> estimate that it is a 25-30ft drop by the time you
> are actually surrounded by forest). From the top
> of the steps I have a pretty good vantage point of
> what lies below.
>
> I begin my descent and about half way down, I look
> down approx. 15 feet off to the right of the
> trail. I absolutely freeze. What I see next I
> can't believe is happening. Not at this time of
> night and the coincidence was just too great for
> this to occur while I happen to be here and about
> to descend into a dark path. I see someone
> walking through the heavy vegetation and trees and
> they are headed directly for the flat part of the
> trail! The creepy part was that I remember they
> were not even using their hands to push away
> branches, they were walking straight through it.
>
> Without another chance to even formulate another
> thought I had made the fastest 180 turn and I ran
> as fast as I could all the way back to Rolling
> Road. It didn't help that the whole time I was
> running I pictured who ever I saw in the forest
> chasing me down, but that never happened.
>
>
> Now the scary part that played with my head is my
> route back home because the top of Holford is a
> couple of yards away from the other end of that
> Hidden Pond Trail of where I should of exited, and
> I was just hoping that I would not see anything at
> all, and even worse since I had snuck out I did
> not use the front door, I had to go around to the
> back of my house that backs up to the forest.
>
> So that's my Hidden Pond story. That's definitely
> one of my top 5 scariest moments I have
> experienced. I actually came here to find if
> anybody has encountered something I saw in
> Arlington one night. I saw your post and had to
> share...that Arlington story I'll write later.

I know what you mean, its a creepy place especially in the evenings. A guy on here named "Stuart" posted something about a friend of his committing suicide last Feb and people have seen him in the woods. The guy that committed suicide lived at hidden pond off Greely. Other people have seen all manner of ghosts of women, men, from different eras walking around that place. I think a female ghost has been seen coming out of the pond too.

RV Native Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I actually came here to find if
> anybody has encountered something I saw in
> Arlington one night. I saw your post and had to
> share...that Arlington story I'll write later.

I'm curious to hear this story too, some people have posting some ghost stories here about Arlington too.

Speaking of ghosts in Arlington, has anyone seen or heard anymore "Margaret Febrey" sightings? For those not familiar with Margaret Febrey, she's the ghost of a little girl that died back in 1913. This story from 2012 tells gives a history and a terrifying encounter a construction worker had with her...

An eerie encounter recently brought work at a North Arlington construction site to a complete stop.

Two months ago, an old Victorian house sat on the site, but as crews began demolishing the property to build a new club house, one of the workers spotted a young girl inside of the building.

The girl is thought to be Margaret Febrey, who was laid to rest in Oakwood Cemetery almost 100 years ago.

"He said he saw this little girl in the window ... and he went in and couldn't find her, and on his way out he saw her on the steps and turned around and didn't see her," said Jeff Schreiner, construction supervisor.

The encounter was too much for the construction worker. He immediately packed his stuff and walked off the job permanently.

Fourteen-year-old Febrey had lived in the Victorian house being demolished before her death in 1913.

The sighting spooked workers so much, they stopped construction on the 99th anniversary of her death in January.

Over the years, the old house even turned skeptics into believers.

"It's certainly possible. The house has been there a long time," said North Arlington resident Liza Marshall.

The sighting of Margaret by a construction worker remains the only occurrence.

Ghost of Margaret Febrey? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Speaking of ghosts in Arlington, has anyone seen
> or heard anymore "Margaret Febrey" sightings? For
> those not familiar with Margaret Febrey, she's the
> ghost of a little girl that died back in 1913.
> This story from 2012 tells gives a history and a
> terrifying encounter a construction worker had
> with her...
>
> North Arlington ghost: Construction worker quits
> after Margaret Febrey sighting
> http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/03/north-arlingt
> on-ghost-construction-worker-quits-after-margaret-
> febrey-sighting-73955.html#ixzz36yOCApk9
>
> An eerie encounter recently brought work at a
> North Arlington construction site to a complete
> stop.
>
> Two months ago, an old Victorian house sat on the
> site, but as crews began demolishing the property
> to build a new club house, one of the workers
> spotted a young girl inside of the building.
>
> The girl is thought to be Margaret Febrey, who was
> laid to rest in Oakwood Cemetery almost 100 years
> ago.
>
> "He said he saw this little girl in the window ...
> and he went in and couldn't find her, and on his
> way out he saw her on the steps and turned around
> and didn't see her," said Jeff Schreiner,
> construction supervisor.
>
> The encounter was too much for the construction
> worker. He immediately packed his stuff and walked
> off the job permanently.
>
> Fourteen-year-old Febrey had lived in the
> Victorian house being demolished before her death
> in 1913.
>
> The sighting spooked workers so much, they stopped
> construction on the 99th anniversary of her death
> in January.
>
> Over the years, the old house even turned skeptics
> into believers.
>
> "It's certainly possible. The house has been there
> a long time," said North Arlington resident Liza
> Marshall.
>
> The sighting of Margaret by a construction worker
> remains the only occurrence.
>
> Watch the news story here:
> http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/03/north-arlingt
> on-ghost-construction-worker-quits-after-margaret-
> febrey-sighting-73955.html

Also I found this comment with the news article...

I live right next to Overlee Pool, and I am a member. I was there the other day when i saw a little girl, (Looked 5) walked behind my friends and didn't come ou the other side. I also heard that the manager of the pool heard a party going on in the lower levels, but when he went to check, no one was there.

Ghost of Margaret Febrey? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ghost of Margaret Febrey? Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Speaking of ghosts in Arlington, has anyone
> seen
> > or heard anymore "Margaret Febrey" sightings?
> For
> > those not familiar with Margaret Febrey, she's
> the
> > ghost of a little girl that died back in 1913.
> > This story from 2012 tells gives a history and
> a
> > terrifying encounter a construction worker had
> > with her...
> >
> > North Arlington ghost: Construction worker
> quits
> > after Margaret Febrey sighting
> >
> http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/03/north-arlingt
>
> >
> on-ghost-construction-worker-quits-after-margaret-
>
> > febrey-sighting-73955.html#ixzz36yOCApk9
> >
> > An eerie encounter recently brought work at a
> > North Arlington construction site to a complete
> > stop.
> >
> > Two months ago, an old Victorian house sat on
> the
> > site, but as crews began demolishing the
> property
> > to build a new club house, one of the workers
> > spotted a young girl inside of the building.
> >
> > The girl is thought to be Margaret Febrey, who
> was
> > laid to rest in Oakwood Cemetery almost 100
> years
> > ago.
> >
> > "He said he saw this little girl in the window
> ...
> > and he went in and couldn't find her, and on
> his
> > way out he saw her on the steps and turned
> around
> > and didn't see her," said Jeff Schreiner,
> > construction supervisor.
> >
> > The encounter was too much for the construction
> > worker. He immediately packed his stuff and
> walked
> > off the job permanently.
> >
> > Fourteen-year-old Febrey had lived in the
> > Victorian house being demolished before her
> death
> > in 1913.
> >
> > The sighting spooked workers so much, they
> stopped
> > construction on the 99th anniversary of her
> death
> > in January.
> >
> > Over the years, the old house even turned
> skeptics
> > into believers.
> >
> > "It's certainly possible. The house has been
> there
> > a long time," said North Arlington resident
> Liza
> > Marshall.
> >
> > The sighting of Margaret by a construction
> worker
> > remains the only occurrence.
> >
> > Watch the news story here:
> >
> http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/03/north-arlingt
>
> >
> on-ghost-construction-worker-quits-after-margaret-
>
> > febrey-sighting-73955.html
>
> Also I found this comment with the news
> article...
>
> I live right next to Overlee Pool, and I am a
> member. I was there the other day when i saw a
> little girl, (Looked 5) walked behind my friends
> and didn't come ou the other side. I also heard
> that the manager of the pool heard a party going
> on in the lower levels, but when he went to check,
> no one was there.
Attachments:

I grew up in Springfield - walking distance from Lake Accotink, near the entrance by the railroad trestle off of Carrleigh pkwy. Before the pedestrian bridge was built you used to have to walk across the tracks to get to the lake. I used to spend a lot of time when I was a kid playing at lake accotink and on the railroad tracks near the trestle (this was back in the 70's and early 80's when it was actually safe to let your kids play outside by themselves), but looking back now I can't believe my parents let me do that. Anyway, one day as I was walking back from the accotink trail and came out of the woods on to the tracks I saw a man on the other side of the tracks kneeling down looking at something. When he saw me he stood up quickly, gave me a startled look and went back into the woods toward carrleigh and just disapeared. The strange thing was that he didnt turn and walk away, he looked right at me and kind of floated backwards into the woods, still giving me that strange look the whole time and I actually saw him disapear into thin air. It was in the middle of the day, sunny but right where he was standing, everything seemed a little out of focus and it was hard to see him clearly, but I could tell he was wearing tattered jeans and a red long sleave plaid shirt. Black boots I think, too. I walked over to see why he was kneeling down and there was a dead dog on the side of the tracks. I am positive this was a ghost. I was 16 at the time. Anybody else see anything like this at Accotink?

A small cemetery is located on common ground beside a row of townhouses, commonly known as Greentree Village in Springfield, Virginia. A wrought iron fence surrounds the gravesite and there is evidence of additional unmarked graves to the south of the fenced area. The gravestones have all been displaced and are leaning against a tree inside the fenced area. The cemetery is periodically cleaned and maintained by the Greentree Village Community Association and its Community Members. The cemetery was refurbished in 2004 by members of the Community and more importantly, the Eagle Scouts and members of the Burke Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

A genealogical chart shows the relationships between some of the people in the cemetery. W. Keen who died in 1849 was William H. Keene's father, and Addison Keen's uncle. Addison and William H. (who owned the mill and was sent to prison for murder) were cousins. We do not know how Clarintine was related to William H., but the Keene's frequently married Dodsons. Incidentally, William H. Keene did not disappear after his trial. His sentence was commuted from hanging to 10 years in prison. I assume he went to prison, but the prison records were lost during the Union occupation of Richmond in 1865. Therefore, William H. Keene's final story remains unknown. Jack L. Hiller1

1 Jack Lewis Hiller has been a free-lance photojournalist who photographed, among others, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Marin Luther King. He taught History at Groveton and West Potomac High Schools for 30 years. With Martha Williams, he initiated the Fairfax County Public School of Archeology Program in 1972, which they jointly conducted until their retirement in 1988. With Valerie Townes, he is now excavating the Barker Home site in Hidden Pond Park, Springfield, Virginia. Mr. Hiller is currently chairman of the Fairfax County History Commission and has been a member since 1981. Reprint from Jack L. Hiller Biography, 1994.

{See December 2004 Issue of “The Bark” for Additional Photographs}
(Headstone)
IN MEMORY OF ADDISON KEEN
Died March 20, 1872
Aged 62 years.
(Headstone)
W. KEEN
Died Mar 27, 1849
(Roughcut fieldstone, broken)
(Headstone)
In Memory of CLARINTINE V.
Beloved wife of William Dodson
Died March 31, 1866 aged 27 years.
Attachments:

About two years ago I moved into the rolling Valley subdivision bordering hidden pond Park and often walk over there in the Early morning with my dog. One morning around 6:30am I saw what appeared to be a Young girl skipping along the pathway which leads from the pond up toward the nature center. I thought it Odd because she was in a long old fashioned dress with a red Bow in her hair she also didn't appear to have any shoes on. My dog growled and barked the girl stopped turned and stared at me. I continued to walk and she turned and went on her way. She was about 40 feet from me and I was going up the same steps she just went up and when I reached the top I didn't see her figured she had run on into the neighorhood.

Weird thing was as I looked up into the open Meadow area-i saw a misty/fog shape moving along and vanish Midway into the meadow. It seemed very odd. Not sure if this were a ghost or not just thought I would report it.

We were staying in room 213 at the Holiday Inn Express in Woodstock, VA. I woke up in the middle of the night, and there was a dark shadowy figure about 2-3 feet tall standing in the middle of the bed between me and my husband. The figure remained in the same place for about 40 seconds and moving its upper body at an extremely fast rate. I was so scared. I could not make a sound or move. Once I closed my eyes and prayed the figure slowly faded away!!!!.

Some years ago when I was a cadet at the Massanutten military Academy and I saw some ghost sightings on the fourth floor of benchoff hall and Harrison hall. Also I heard voices and saw stuff in the basement of Sperry hall (under the former quartermaster) I believe they are more like evil spirits than ghosts because when they are sighted it feels ice cold and you feel like your soul is being dragged out of your body.